Forecasting and scheduling campaigns involving different channels of communication

ABSTRACT

Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for generating a roster template used in scheduling agent resources to conduct a first campaign and a second campaign involving two different channels of communication. Specifically, forecasts are generated for the first and second campaigns and agent resources needed to handle communications forecasted for each campaign are identified. A roster template is generated that includes one or more shifts to schedule based on the agent resources identified for the first campaign and evaluated to identify whether a deficiency exists with respect to the one or more shifts not meeting the agent resources identified for the second campaign. If so, the one or more shifts are revised so as not to cause a second deficiency with respect to the first campaign.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/736,719, filed on Jun. 11, 2015, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference for all that they teach.

BACKGROUND

Scheduling agents at contact centers is a complex process that typically involves a large number of variables to consider in generating schedules such as, for example, volume of communications to be handled (e.g., number of inbound communications typically received over a time period and/or number of outbound communications to be made over the time period), available staff, skills of various staff members (e.g., agents), reasons for communications (e.g., customer service, order taking, and/or sales), and number of communication sources (e.g., inbound queues and outbound queues). Further, in generating such schedules, forecasting techniques are typically employed to better predict scheduling variables based on historical data for such variables.

With that said, in today's world contact centers are beginning to use a wide range of channels of communication besides telephone calls to interact with individuals such as SMS text messages, Web chats, email, IM messaging, etc. A channel of communication is understood to be a particular medium used for communicating. For instance, a contact center may use telephone calls as a first channel of communication, SMS text messages as a second channel of communication, and Web chats as a third channel of communication for communicating with remote parties. As a result, the scheduling process has become even more complex with contact centers conducting multiple campaigns that involve the use of different channels of communication. Although a good amount of effort has been put into creating products and processes for generating schedules for contact centers for individual campaigns, deficiencies still exist with respect to products and processes for generating schedules for contact centers conducting multiple campaigns that may run concurrently, contiguously, or approximate to one another and involve different channels of communication.

Thus, a need in the art exists for improved processes for generating forecasts and schedules to conduct multiple campaigns involving different channels of communication. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure herein is presented.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In general, embodiments of the present invention provide computer program products, methods, systems, apparatus, and computing entities for generating a roster template for use in scheduling agent resources at a contact center to conduct a first campaign and a second campaign involving different channels of communication. Specifically, a first set of campaign parameters are defined for the first campaign that include (1) a first channel of communication to be used in conducting the first campaign and (2) a first time period over which the first campaign is to be conducted. Likewise, a second set of campaign parameters are defined for the second campaign that include (1) a second channel of communication to be used in conducting the second campaign that is different than the first channel of communication and (2) a second time period over which the second campaign is to be conducted, in which at least a portion of each of the two time periods for the campaigns overlap each other.

In various embodiments, a first historical dataset is selected for the first campaign that includes historical data on handling communications involving the first channel of communication over a first historical time period and a second historical dataset is selected for the second campaign that includes historical data on handling communications involving the second channel of communication over a second historical time period. In general, a first forecast is generated based on the first historical dataset and the first set of campaign parameters and identifies a first number of agent resources needed to handle a first number of communications forecasted to be received or sent over the first time period that involves the first channel of communication. In addition, a second forecast is generated based on the second historical dataset and the second set of campaign parameters and identifies a second number of agent resources needed to handle a second number of the communications forecasted to be received or sent over the second time period that involves the second channel of communication.

Accordingly, a roster template is generated in various embodiments that includes a set of shifts identifying agent resources to schedule based on the first number of agent resources needed to handle the first number of communications forecasted to be received or sent over the first time period for the first campaign. In particular embodiments, the first campaign is identified as having priority over the second campaign and therefore the roster template is generated with respect to the first number of agent resources needed to handle the first number of communications.

After generating the roster template, the template is then evaluated to identify a first deficiency in which the agent resources identified in the set of shifts to schedule do not meet the second number of agent resources needed to handle the second number of communications forecasted to be received or sent over the second time period for the second campaign. At this point, a determination is made as to whether to address the first deficiency based on the deficiency causing one or more requirements set forth by a defined parameter not to be met. Accordingly, if the first deficiency is to be addressed, the set of shifts for the roster template is revised to address the deficiency so that the one or more requirements set forth by the defined parameter are met and a second deficiency is not created in which the agent resources identified in the revised set of shifts to schedule do not meet the first number of agent resources needed to handle the first number of communications forecasted to be received or sent for the first campaign causing one or more requirements set forth by a second defined parameter not to be met.

In particular embodiments, once a roster template has been generated for the first and second campaigns, a schedule is generated based on the roster template that identifies actual agent resources scheduled to fill the agent resources identified in the roster template to work during the first and second time periods for the first and second campaigns. Depending on the embodiment, the actual agent resources may be scheduled to fill the agent resources identified in the roster template because they are able to handle communications involving both the first channel of communication and the second channel of communication. While in particular instances, the actual agent resources may be scheduled to fill the agent resources because they are able to handle communications involving both the first channel of communication and the second channel of communication at virtually the same time.

Once the first and second campaigns are being conducted in particular embodiments, the actual agent resources from the schedule are identified and agent resources currently logged in to handle communications for the first and second campaigns are verified based on the actual agent resources identified from the schedule to identify any discrepancies between the agent resources currently logged in to handle communications for the first and second campaigns and the actual agent resources identified from the schedule. With that said, in particular embodiments, a message may be received from a contact device about a communication received or made by the contact center for the first or second campaign and an available agent is selected from the agent resources currently logged in to handle communications for the first and second campaigns. Accordingly, a determination is made as to whether the available agent can handle the communication based on capabilities of the available agent with respect to handling communications involving the first channel of communication and the second channel of communication. If the agent is able to handle the communication, a message is sent to the contact device advising the device to transfer the communication to the agent so that he may handle it.

The subject matter disclosed herein may be implemented as a computer-controlled apparatus, a method, a computing system, or as an article of manufacture such as a computer-readable storage medium. These and various other features will be apparent from the following Detailed Description and the associated drawings.

This Summary is provided to exemplify concepts at a high level form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended that this Summary be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that address any or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a contact center architecture illustrating the various technologies disclosed herein.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a process for generating a schedule for one or more campaigns involving different channels of communication according to various embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A and 3B provide tables showing the combinations of channels of communication an agent at the contact center can handle at any given time.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a manage schedule module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a campaign module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a forecast module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 7A and 7B provide an example of smoothing a forecast in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a roster template module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a schedule module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 10-17 provide an example of forecasting and generating a roster template in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 18-29 provide another example of forecasting and generating a roster template in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a flowchart illustrating a campaign monitoring module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 31 is a flowchart illustrating an agent monitoring module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 32 is a flowchart illustrating a communication monitoring module that can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 33 is an exemplary schematic diagram of a server used in one embodiment of the contact center architecture to practice the technologies disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments for practicing the technologies disclosed herein are described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the technologies disclosed are shown. Indeed, the embodiments disclosed herein are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements and should not be construed as limiting or precluding other embodiments applying the teachings and concepts disclosed herein. Like numbers in the drawings refer to like elements throughout.

Exemplary Contact Center Architecture

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a contact center architecture 100 illustrating the various technologies disclosed herein. The contact center architecture 100 shown in FIG. 1 may process various channels of communication such as voice calls, facsimiles, emails, text messages, video calls, Web chats, etc. that can be inbound-only, outbound-only, or a combination of both (sometimes referred to as a “blended” contact center). In particular instances, the contact center may be referred to as a call center. However, for purposes of this disclosure, the term “contact center” is used throughout, although it is understood that the two are synonymous.

With that said the contact center may handle communications originating from a remote party or initiated to a remote party. Thus, the term “party,” without any further qualification, refers to an individual associated with a communication processed by the contact center, where the communication is either received from or placed to the party.

Depending on the embodiment, communications may originate to or be received from parties that use a variety of different devices. For instance, a party may receive or place a voice call using a conventional analog telephone 110 b connected to a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) 115 using an analog plain old telephone service (“POTS”) line 116 a. The call may be routed by the PSTN 115 and may comprise various types of facilities 116 d, including, but not limited to: T1 trunks, SONET based fiber optic networks, ATM networks, etc. Various types of routers, switches, bridges, gateways, and other types of equipment may be involved in the processing of the calls.

In addition, a party may receive or place a communication using a device such as a desktop or laptop computer 110 a, a smart phone 110 c, mobile phone, tablet, or other mobile device. Depending on the device, these communications may be placed or received via an Internet provider 135 a, 135 b and/or wirelessly via a mobile service provider (“MSP”) 112. For instance, communications may be routed to the PSTN 115 using an integrated services digital network (“ISDN”) interface 116 b or other type of interface that is well known to those skilled in the art. While in other instances, the MSP 112 may route communications as packetized data to/from an Internet provider 135 b using Internet-based protocols. For convenience, unless indicated otherwise, the term “trunk” refers to any type of facility 116 c, 116 d, or 116 e providing communication to, or from, the contact center, regardless of the type of protocol or technology used. Specifically, a “trunk” is not limited to time-division multiplexing (“TDM”) technology. Those skilled in the art will recognize that a variety of protocols and facilities may be used to convey communications.

Accordingly, the contact center may implement various contact devices 131 for initiating and receiving communications based on the channel of communication. For instance, in various embodiments, communications such as inbound calls and/or inbound SMS text messages are received from parties by a contact device 131 such as an automatic call distributor (“ACD”). In particular embodiments, the ACD may be a specialized switch for receiving and routing inbound calls and/or text messages under various conditions. Further, the ACD may be embodied as a dedicated form of equipment readily available from various manufacturers, or the ACD may be a so-called “soft switch” comprising a suitable programming module executed by a processing device to perform the necessary functions. The ACD may route an incoming call and/or text message over contact center facilities 165, 168 to an available agent. Depending on the embodiment, the facilities 165, 168 may be any suitable technology for conveying the call and/or message, including but not limited to a local area network (“LAN”), wide area network (“WAN”), ISDN, and/or conventional TDM circuits. The exact details typically depend in part on the technology used. For example, in one embodiment, first facilities 165 may be analog or proprietary voice communication technology whereas second facilities 168 may be SIP oriented. As may be appreciated, there are various technologies and configurations that are possible. In addition, the facilities 165, 168 may be the same or different from the facilities used to transport the call and/or message to the ACD.

Depending on the embodiment, the ACD may place a call and/or text message in a queue if there is no suitable agent available. Further, the ACD may route a call to an interactive voice response system (“IVR”) 130 to play voice prompts and/or may route a text message to an interactive text response system (“ITR”) 140 to send message prompts. Depending on the embodiment, these prompts may solicit information from the party and the IVR 130 and/or ITR 140 may collect and analyze responses from the party in the form of dual-tone multiple frequency (“DMTF”) tones, speech, and/or text. In addition, the IVR 130 and/or ITR 140 may be used to further identify the purpose of the call or text message, such as, for example, prompting the party to provide account information or otherwise obtain information used to service the call or text message. Further, in particular embodiments, the IVR 130 and/or ITR 140 may interact with other components, such as a data store 175, to retrieve or provide information for processing the call or text message.

Continuing on, in various embodiments, communications such as outbound calls and/or outbound SMS text messages may be sent using another contact device 131 such as a dialer (e.g., predictive dialer). Again, the dialer may be embodied as a dedicated form of equipment readily available from various manufacturers, or the dialer may be a so-called “soft switch” comprising a suitable programming module executed by a processing device to perform the necessary functions. Accordingly, a predictive dialer is a type of dialer that may originate calls and/or text messages to multiple telephone numbers simultaneously with the expectation that agents will be available to handle one or more of the calls that are answered and/or text messages that are responded to. In various embodiments, the predictive dialer makes use of one or more algorithms to determine how and when to dial/text numbers so as to minimize the likelihood of a party being placed in a queue while maintaining target agent utilization.

Once a call is answered or a text message is responded to by a party, the dialer may connect the call or direct the text message to an available agent using one or more facilities 165, 168. Other types of dialing methods may be used such as preview dialing in which information about an account is displayed to an agent to review prior to the dialer originating a call or text message to the account. In this way, when the party answers the call or responds to the text message, the agent can interact with the party in an effective way. The dialer may also originate a call or text message and connect the call to the IVR 130 or direct the text message to the ITR 140 for processing upon the party answering the call or responding to the text message. Further, in particular embodiments, the dialer may be configured so that it attempts to establish communication with parties using a calling/texting list of telephone numbers that is stored in a data store 175.

Depending on the embodiment, other contact devices 131 may be used for originating and/or receiving other channels of communication such as Web chats, emails, SMS text messages, etc. For example, the contact center may make use of a web server to host Web pages and interact with parties via Web chats. In addition, the contact center may make use of an email server to receive and send emails from parties. While in other embodiments, the contact center may convey and/or receive SMS text messages to/from a gateway instead of an ACD or dialer, which then conveys the messages to the Internet 135 b and on to a mobile service provider 112. In these particular embodiments, such a gateway may provide a way for the contact center to send and/or receive SMS text messages that are not in a native SMS protocol and can be accepted or conveyed by the mobile service provider 112.

Again, information associated with these other channels of communication may be stored in the data store 175. In addition, like calls, a transfer-like operation may be used in various embodiments to connect a communication that has been answered and/or received with an available agent, or if an agent is not available, a queueing operation may be used to place the communication in a queue until an agent is available.

Accordingly, in various embodiments, the contact center may make use of a campaign monitoring system (“CM”) 150 to monitor active campaigns and to direct the contact devices 131 on which agents should receive communications that have been made and/or received. Depending on the embodiment, the CM 150 may keep track of the agents who are available to handle communications as well as what channels of communications these agents are able to handle. For instance, a SMS text message may be received by the contact center and the CM 150 may determine which agents are available who can handle the SMS text message and direct the corresponding contact device 131 to direct the SMS text message to a particular agent who is available and able to handle the message.

With that said, an agent at the contact center typically uses a computing device 160 a-160 c, such as a personal computer, and a voice device 161 a-161 c to handle communications. The combination of computing device 160 a-160 c and voice device 161 a-161 c may be referred to as a “workstation.” However, in particular embodiments, the computing device 160 a-160 c may also handle voice (e.g., VoIP) or voice capabilities may not be needed so that reference to an agent's “workstation” may only refer to a computing device 160 a-160 c without the use of a separate voice device 161 a-161 c.

Agents typically log onto their workstations prior to handling communications and this allows the contact center to know which agents are available to potentially receive communications. In particular embodiments, the contact center may also maintain information on each agent's skill level that may be used to route a specific communication to an agent or group of agents having the same skill level. In particular instances, if a suitable agent is not available to handle a particular communication, the contact center (e.g., the contact device 131) may queue the communication for the next available suitable agent.

Depending on the embodiment, interaction between a contact device 131, as well as other components within the contact center architecture 100, and agent's workstation may involve using a local area network (“LAN”) 170. In addition, in particular embodiments, an agent may interact with components that provide information to the agent's workstation. For example, when a communication is directed to an agent, information above the party on the communication may be presented to the agent's computer device 160 a-160 b over the LAN 170 using facility 168.

Finally, another component that is employed in the contact center architecture 100 shown in FIG. 1 is a workforce management system (“WFM”) 155. As is discussed in further detail below, in various embodiments, the WFM 155 maintains information and generates agents' schedules to effectively handle inbound/outbound communications. For instance, in particular embodiments, the WFM 155 maintains historical communication volume information for various types of communication campaigns and generates forecasts for expected communication volume based on the historical information to predict the number of agents needed to handle the communication volume at a defined service level. The WFM 155 then applies the forecasts and information about available agents to generate work rosters of agents (e.g., schedules). That is to say, the WFM 155 schedules agents for work shifts according to the anticipated needs of the communication campaigns.

Although a number of the above entities may be referred to as a “component,” each may also be referred to in the art as a “computing device,” “unit”, “server”, or “system.” A component may incorporate a local data store and/or interface with an external data store. Use of the word “server” does not necessarily require the component to interact in a formal web-based client-server arrangement with other components, although that may be the case. Further, the above components may be located remotely from (or co-located with) other components. Furthermore, one or more of the components may be implemented on a single processing device to perform the functions described herein. In addition, the contact center architecture 100 may be provided as a hosted solution, where the call processing functionality is provided as a communication or software service (a so-called “communication-as-a-service” (“CaaS”) or “software-as-a-service” (“SaaS”)) to a contact center operator. Thus, there is no requirement that the components identified above must be actually located in a contact center location or controlled by a contact center operator. In addition, depending on the embodiment, the agent positions may be remotely located from the other components of the contact center, sometimes referred to as a “virtual contact center.” Those skilled in the art will recognize FIG. 1 represents one possible configuration of a contact center architecture 100, and variations are possible with respect to the protocols, facilities, components, technologies, and equipment used.

General Overview of Process

FIG. 2 provides an overview of a process 200 for generating a schedule for staff who are to conduct multiple campaigns using different channels of communication according to various embodiments of the invention. The process 200 may involve execution of various program modules, which may be repeated to refine the schedule generated. At a high level, the schedule generation process 200 involves generating/defining or selecting communication campaigns, along with historical data, that are then used to generate forecasts. The forecasts, in turn, are used to generate a roster template for the campaigns. Accordingly, the roster template is then used to generate a schedule that identifies the particular staff to fulfill the shifts in the roster template.

The process 200 typically begins with generating or selecting two or more campaigns involving the use of different channels of communication, shown as Step 210. For instance, the campaigns may include a first campaign involving telephone calls, a second campaign involving Web chats, and a third campaign involving SMS text messages. Depending on the circumstances, these campaigns may be outbound, inbound, or a combination of both. For purposes of this disclosure, an “outbound campaign” is understood to be a series of related communications to be placed to various parties in accordance with various parameters that typically include commonly defined goals (e.g., objectives). For example, a business may conduct an outbound campaign to call and/or email local residents to inform them of a new store location opening in the residents' area. Typically an outbound campaign is defined by parameters such as, for example, the time period over which the campaign will be conducted (e.g., a start date and an end date), a “contact” list providing the parties to be contacted and the appropriate information to contact them (e.g., telephone numbers and/or email addresses), and/or the skills needed by those handling the communications (e.g., skills needed by the agents calling the parties on the list).

Further, other parameters associated with an outbound campaign may identify one or more goals or objectives to be achieved by the campaign. For example, a goal may specify a total number of communications that need to be made during the campaign or during a particular time interval of the campaign, a number of the communications that need to be answered, a number of the communications answered that need to reach the right party (right party connects or RPC), or a number of the RPC that need to result in a targeted activity being completed, such as, for example, completing a sale to the party (completes).

An “inbound campaign” is understood to be a series of related communications received from various parties over a time period. For example, a business may have a technical support service that handles communications (e.g., calls and/or Web chats) received from various parties who have placed the communications to request technical support on a product sold by the business. Typically an inbound campaign is defined by parameters such as, for example, the time period over which the campaign will be conducted and/or skills needed by those handling the communications. However, in particular instances, an inbound communication may also be defined by one or more goals or objectives to be achieved by the campaign. For example, an objective may be to have each communication forwarded to an agent within a defined time limit once the communication has been placed in a queue to wait for an available agent. Thus, generating the one or more campaigns generally involves defining the various parameters for the campaigns.

For example, a contact center may be contracted to conduct a first inbound campaign that involves handling technical support calls for a laptop computer manufacturer over the first week of June. In addition, the same contact center may also be contracted to conduct a second inbound campaign that involves handling Web chats over the first week of June that originate from the manufacturer's website from potential customers who may be interested in purchasing a laptop. In this instance, a potential customer may be viewing products on the manufacturer's website and may select an option to speak with a representative. Finally, the contact center may also be contracted to conduct a third inbound campaign over the first week of June that involves handling SMS text messages received by parties who are seeking additional information on the manufacturer's products. Thus, in this instance, the time periods over which the three campaigns are to take place overlap with each other. That is say the three campaigns are to be conducted concurrently. Therefore, the contact center will be required to utilize its staff to conduct these three campaigns at virtually the same time.

It should be noted that in this instance, generally speaking, agents at the contact center are able to handle multiple channels of communication at virtually the same time. That is to say, in many instances, an agent at the contact center can handle an inbound call while also handling an SMS text message and/or a Web chat. Other combinations are possible such as, for example, an agent may be able to handle two Web chats while also handling an SMS text message. Therefore, an agent is not necessarily handling two or more communications simultaneously but may be handling two or more communications in close proximity of one another. For example, an agent may be handling two Web chats at virtually the same time but the agent is not necessarily typing responses for both chats at exactly the same time. Those of ordinary skill in the art can envision multiple combinations that may be possible in light of this disclosure. However, for purposes of this example, the agents at the contact center are generally able to handle an inbound call while also handling one other channel of communication such as an SMS text message or a Web chat.

Continuing on, since each campaign in the example involves a different channel of communication, a separate forecast for each campaign is generated to predict the staffing requirements needed over the first week of June. Thus, looking at the example, a first forecast is generated for the first campaign involving the inbound calls received for technical support, a second forecast is generated for the second campaign involving the Web chats with potential customers who may be interested in purchasing products, and a third forecast is generated for the third campaign involving the SMS text messages received from parties seeking additional information on the manufacturer's products. Accordingly, such an approach provides a forecast for each individual campaign without taking into consideration the other campaigns that are running concurrently. That is to say, each forecast is generated in isolation and only considers the corresponding campaign's parameters and/or goals.

In addition, each forecast is generated while considering constraints only applicable with respect to the corresponding campaign. For instance, the contact center may only have a particular number of agents available to work during any given shift. Thus, the forecast for the first campaign involving the calls received for technical support is generated by considering all the agents available to work during this campaign for any given shift without considering whether any of these agents are needed to handle communications for the other two campaigns. Likewise, the forecast for the second campaign involving the Web chats received from potential customers is generated by considering all of the agents available to work during this campaign for any given shift without considering whether any of these agents are needed to handle inbound calls for the first campaign or SMS text messages for the third campaign.

By following this approach of generating individual forecasts for each channel of communication, the contact center can take agents' abilities to handle different channels of communication at virtually the same time into consideration. For instance, briefly turning to FIG. 3A, a table 300A is displayed showing the combinations of channels of communication a typical agent at the contact center can handle at any given time with respect to the above-mentioned example involving agents who are generally able to handle an inbound call while also handling one other channel of communication such as a SMS text message or a Web chat. Specifically, the table 300A shows how many communications for each individual channel of communication can be handled for a particular channel of communication shown in the first column while handling a single communication for that particular channel of communication. For example, an agent can only be on a single telephone call at any given time, whether the call is inbound or outbound. Thus, the value 310 shown in the table 300A is zero with respect to how many additional calls can be handled by an agent while the agent is on a first call. With that said, an agent can be on a single telephone call while also handling either a single Web chat 315 or a single SMS text message 320 at any given time. The same can be said with respect to Web chats and SMS text messages. For instance, an agent can handle a single Web chat while also handling another Web chat 325 or a single SMS text message 330. Thus, the table 300 a shown in FIG. 3A provides the combinations of channels of communication that can be handled by an agent at virtually the same time.

Accordingly, the combinations of channels of communication can change from contact center to contact center based on the capabilities of the contact center and its agents. For instance, in another example shown in FIG. 3B, the table 300B shows at this contact center a typical agent can be engaged in a call while also handling two Web chats 335 or two SMS text messages 340 at any given time. In addition, an agent can handle a single SMS text message while also handling four Web chats 345 or three additional SMS text messages 350. Further, the combinations of channels of communication can be expanded for particular contact centers to three dimensions and/or four dimensions in various embodiments. For instance, an agent at a particular contact center can be engaged in a call while also handling a Web chat and a SMS text message. Thus, in this instance, the agent is handling three different channels of communication at virtually the same time instead of just two. Those of ordinary skill in the art can envision other combinations of channels of communication that may be available at various contact centers in light of this disclosure.

Therefore, in various embodiments, a separate forecast for each campaign is generated to take into consideration agents' abilities to handle different channels of communication at virtually the same time. However with that said, it may be advantageous in particular embodiments to generate a single forecast for multiple campaigns involving the same channel of communication. Such an approach may be followed in these instances because conducting concurrent campaigns using the same channel of communication likely have a more direct effect on each other because an agent handling a channel of communication for a first campaign directly affects whether or not the agent is available to handle the same channel of communication for a second campaign.

Returning now to FIG. 2, in order to generate each forecast, one or more sets of historical data are selected, shown as Step 215. Typically, the selected historical dataset includes historical data for similar types of campaigns as those for which the forecast is being conducted for. For example, in the case of the three campaigns described above, the historical dataset for the first campaign involving inbound calls to technical support may include data on one or more past inbound campaigns conducted to handle technical support calls for the same manufacturer or a similar manufacturer, the historical dataset for the second campaign involving Web chats with potential customers may include data on one or more past campaigns conducted to handle Web chats involving purchasing products for the same manufacturer or a similar manufacturer, and the historical data for the third campaign involving SMS text messages requesting product information may include data on one or more past campaigns conducted to handle SMS text messages received requesting product information for the same manufacturer or a similar manufacturer.

Once the campaigns have been created and the historical data sets have been selected, the schedule generation process 200 continues with generating a forecast for each of the campaigns in Step 220. In general, the purpose of generating each forecast in the example is to provide an accurate prediction of the resources needed to successfully handle each of the three inbound campaigns. Thus, each forecast involves analyzing historical data on similar channels of communications to predict the number of communications that will be received during each of the three campaigns and thus allowing computation of the number of resources needed to handle the communications.

Depending on the embodiment, these predictions and/or computations may be provided for any number of time intervals selected for the individual campaigns. For instance, in the example, the three campaigns are to be conducted over the first week of June. The contact center operates daily from 9:00 a.m. till 9:00 p.m. Thus, the time intervals selected for these three campaigns are typically some multiple of time that fits within this timeframe such as, for example, one hour, thirty minutes, or fifteen minutes. Therefore, the forecast for each campaign provides a predicted number of communications for each time interval over the time period the campaigns are to be conducted. Generally, the same time intervals are used for each campaign. However, in some embodiments, the time intervals may differ between the campaigns depending on preferences and/or the channels of communication being used for the different campaigns. For example, a first campaign may be conducted for handling inbound calls and a second campaign may be conducted concurrently for handling inbound emails. In this instance, the frequency of inbound calls received may be at a much greater rate than the frequency of inbound emails received. Therefore, a shorter time interval (e.g., fifteen minutes) may be more appropriate for the forecast generated for the inbound call campaign than for the inbound email campaign (e.g., sixty minutes).

Continuing on, in particular embodiments, information on the forecasted communications is used to compute what resources are required to meet the needs for the campaign. The needs for a particular campaign are typically dependent on the parameters, goals, and/or objectives defined for the campaign. For instance, an outbound call campaign may be created in which the campaign is to be conducted over a two-week period of time and a goal of making seven hundred right party contacts over the course of the campaign is defined. Thus, in this example, the needs of the outbound call campaign identify the number of calls required to be placed over the two-week period of time to reach seven hundred right party contacts. Accordingly, the forecast provides a prediction on the number of calls required to be placed over the two-week period of time for the campaign and the number of resources in the form of agents required to place these calls. In particular instances, the forecast may also provide information on other resources that are required to meet the needs of the campaigns such as, in the example, the number of trunks required to place the calls.

Therefore, returning to the example involving the three inbound campaigns, the forecast for the campaign involving inbound calls to technical support provides a prediction on the number of calls that will be received for each time interval and the number of agents required to handle these calls. In this instance, the number of agents required to handle the calls may be dependent on one or more of the parameters defined for the campaign. For instance, a parameter that is typically defined provides the average time needed to handle one of the calls (average handle time or “AHT”). Accordingly, the AHT affects the number of calls an agent can typically handle within a time interval. For example, if the AHT for an inbound call to technical support is five minutes and the time intervals are defined in fifteen minutes increments, then an agent who is available to handle calls for an entire time interval can handle three different inbound calls received during the time interval. Therefore, if the forecast predicts seventy-five inbound calls will be received during a particular time interval, then twenty-five agents will be required during this time interval to handle all of the calls received.

Accordingly, the forecast for the campaign involving Web chats with potential customers provides a prediction on the number of Web chats that will be received for each time interval and the number of agents required to handle these chats. Likewise, the forecast for the campaign involving SMS text messages requesting product information provides a prediction on the number of text messages that will be received for each time interval and the number of agents required to handle these messages. Again, the predicted number of agents for each campaign may be dependent on the AHTs for handling such Web chats and for handling such SMS text messages.

Furthermore, in particular instances, forecasts may be based on limitations associated with the contact center. For example, parameters may be defined for an outbound call campaign that identify a maximum number of agents that can be available for any given time period (e.g., a defined time interval) for the contact center during the time in which the campaign is to be conducted. Therefore, based on these parameters and the AHT for an answered outbound call, the forecast may predict that only a maximum number of calls can be placed over any given time period for the campaign.

At this point, if any of the forecasts are unsatisfactory, they may be re-executed using a different/revised set of historical data and/or different/revised campaigns. For instance, returning to the example, the parameters for the third campaign involving SMS text messages requesting information may be changed to define the time intervals as thirty minutes instead of fifteen minutes. The forecast may then be regenerated based on the revised parameters for the campaign. Thus, a number of forecasts may be generated using revised parameters, goals, and/or objectives until a satisfactory prediction is obtained.

Once acceptable forecasts have been generated, the campaigns are prioritized in Step 225. In various embodiments, the campaigns are generally prioritized with respect to importance of meeting the needs of the different campaigns. The indication of the relative priority can be done explicitly, e.g., by assigning a relative priority level to each campaign, or implicitly, e.g., by the order in which campaigns are selected by a user when developing the forecasts. For instance, the contact center in the example may consider it a top priority to adequately handle inbound calls to technical support so that all such calls are handled in a quick and efficient manner. Handling these calls in a quick and efficient manner may be seen as having enough staff (agents) available to answer all of these calls within a defined time frame upon receiving the calls (e.g., within five minutes of receiving the calls). Therefore, the contact center may consider the first campaign involving inbound calls to technical support to have a higher priority with respect to making sure that the required resources (e.g., agents) identified in the forecasts are available as compared to the second and third campaigns. In turn, the contact center may consider the second campaign involving Web chats with potential customers as having priority over the third campaign involving SMS text messages received requesting product information. The contact center may consider the second campaign to have a higher priority because the center does not want to lose an opportunity to make a potential sale and so the center highly values servicing the Web chats quickly once a party has initiated such a chat. Further, the contact center may be able to defer sending a response back to the parties who have sent SMS text messages requesting product information so that an immediate response to these messages is not necessarily critical.

Once the campaigns have been prioritized, a roster template is generated for the highest prioritized campaign against the forecast for the campaign, shown as Step 230. For purposes of this disclosure, a “roster template” is understood to be one or more shifts (set of shifts) that are arranged to meet the needs of the generated forecast. Accordingly, a “shift” is a unit used in planning, allocating, and/or assigning work to staff. In various contexts, a shift may be further characterized by one or more different attributes, such as, for example: a certain type (e.g., outbound call shift, first campaign shift, or a second campaign shift); a time period (e.g., the 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. shift, evening shift, or graveyard shift); or particular staff members (e.g., John Doe's shift, inbound call agents' shift, or daytime employees' shift). Therefore, as demonstrated in these examples, a shift may be associated with an individual (e.g., John Doe's shift) or with a plurality of individuals (e.g., staff members assigned to the evening shift). In addition, these shifts may be overlapping, serial relative to one another, or a combination of both. Thus, a number of shifts may be in parallel and/or overlapping to each other during a work day and then serial relative to each other over a number of work days. In addition, the roster template may also identify in various embodiments the skills required by staff members to staff the set of shifts and any breaks and/or activities required for staff within the set of shifts.

Returning to the example, the contact center operates with two different shifts in a workday. A first shift that runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and a second shift that runs from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Thus, this step involves generating a roster template for the first campaign (the highest prioritized campaign) identifying the number of agents needed during each first and second shift for each day to handle inbound calls received by technical support. At this point, depending on the embodiment, the roster template may be edited to modify or define parameters for the shifts and/or to fine-tune the roster template. For example, the shifts may be edited to include a thirty minute break for lunch. In particular instances, the roster template may be regenerated to take into consideration any such edits to the roster template. That is, in the example, the particular roster template may be regenerated to take into consideration the added thirty minute breaks for lunch.

Once the roster template has been generated and is acceptable, the roster template is evaluated to determine whether the sets of shifts for the roster template can adequately staff the next prioritized campaign in Step 235. Thus, in the example, the roster template is evaluated with respect to the second campaign involving Web chats with potential customers to determine whether the set of shifts for the roster template can adequately staff the second campaign based on the forecast generated for the second campaign.

As indicated earlier for this example, an agent at the contact center is able to handle a call while also handling either a Web chat or a SMS text message. Therefore, staff members (e.g., agents) who are fulfilling staffing requirements for the first campaign and handling inbound calls to technical support may also concurrently fulfill staffing requirements for the second campaign and handle Web chats with potential customers or fulfill staffing requirements for the third campaign and handle SMS text messages requesting product information. That is to say, an agent can be on an inbound call associated with the first campaign while also handling either a Web chat for the second campaign or an SMS text message for the third campaign. Accordingly, if the roster template requires twenty-five agents to work a first shift on a given day for the first campaign to handle inbound calls received by technical support during this shift on the given day, then these twenty-five agents can also handle Web chats received during this first shift on the given day for the second campaign. Therefore, if the staffing requirements as identified by the forecast generated for the second campaign requires twenty agents to work during the time intervals identified in the forecast that occur over the first shift on the given day, then the first shift for the roster template can adequately staff the second campaign.

However, if instead the staffing requirements identified by the forecast generated for the second campaign requires thirty agents to work during the time intervals identified in the forecast that occur over the first shift on the given day, then the first shift for the roster template does not adequately staff the second campaign. This is because the first shift for the roster template currently only has twenty-five agents working on the given day to meet the needs of the first campaign while the time intervals identified in the forecast for the second shift that occur over the first shift requires thirty agents to work to meet the needs of the second campaign. Therefore a deficiency exists with respect to resources required (agents needed) to meet the needs of the second campaign even though the first campaign is adequately staffed. Such a determination in made in Step 240 of the process 200.

At this point, a determination is then made as to whether the deficiency should be addressed in Step 245. For instance, in various embodiments, the contact center may set parameters that are used to evaluate whether the deficiency should be addressed or not. For example, the contact center may set a parameter (e.g., a rule) that any deficiency greater than fifteen percent with respect to staffing a particular shift for a lower prioritized campaign be addressed. Therefore, in the example, the contact center determines the deficiency with respect to the second campaign for the first shift should be addressed since the deficiency is greater than fifteen percent (e.g., the deficiency is 5/30 or 17%).

Generally speaking, the deficiency may simply be addressed by adding staff to the shift. For instance, the deficiency with respect to the second campaign for the first shift could be addressed by simply adding at least one additional staff member to the shift to lower the deficiency to thirteen percent. However, other factors may influence whether staff may be added to the shift and/or the number of staff that may be added. For instance, the contact center may have a maximum number of staff available to work during a shift, workday, and/or campaign. In addition, the contact center may have limits on the number of hours staff members are allowed to work in a given time period, and/or limits on the cost of staffing a shift, workday, or campaign. Therefore, the contact center may not be able to address the deficiency by simply adding staff to work during the shift.

With that said, another solution may be to move staff members from one shift to another to address the deficiency. For instance, in the example, the second shift on the given day in the roster template may require thirty agents to meet the needs of the first campaign while the time intervals in the forecast for the second campaign that occur over the same shift (second shift) on the given day may require the same number of agents (thirty) to meet the needs of the second campaign. Thus, in this instance, the second campaign is adequately staffed during the second shift when the first campaign is adequately staffed. In addition, the contact center may have set a parameter (e.g., defined a rule) that any deficiency greater than ten percent with respect to staffing a particular shift for a top prioritized campaign should be addressed. Therefore, as long as twenty-seven agents are scheduled to work during the second shift then both the first campaign and second campaign will be adequately staffed while meeting the contact center's deficiency parameters for the first and second campaigns. Thus, the contact center can address the deficiency in the first shift by moving a staff member from the second shift to the first shift resulting in a total of twenty-six agents working the first shift for the given day and thus lowering the deficiency for the first shift to below the fifteen percent deficiency parameter threshold. Once the deficiency has been address in Step 250, a determination is made as to whether to continue to evaluate the roster template in Step 255. That is to say, a determination is made as to whether to continue to evaluate the roster template for the first and/or second shifts for other days to determine whether the sets of shifts for the template can adequately staff the next prioritized campaign. If so, then process returns to Step 235 and continues to evaluate the roster template to determine whether the sets of shifts for the roster template can adequately staff the second campaign.

Once the roster template has been evaluated and modified to adequately staff the next prioritized campaign (e.g., the second campaign), then a determination is made as to whether another campaign needs to be evaluated in Step 260. Since there is a third campaign involving SMS text messages, the determination is that there is another campaign that needs to be evaluated. Therefore, the process returns to Step 235 to evaluate the roster template to determine whether the set of shifts for this template can adequately staff the third campaign.

In this instance, the forecast for the third campaign requires three agents to the handle SMS text messages received for time intervals in the forecast that occur during the first shift on the given day. However, an agent can only handle one of a Web chat or an SMS text message concurrently with a call. Therefore, a deficiency exists with respect to the first shift on the given day for the third campaign since all twenty-six agents handling inbound calls for the first campaign are also required to handle Web chats for the second campaign, leaving no agents available to handle SMS text messages for the third campaign. However in this instance, the contact center has not defined a deficiency parameter (e.g., a rule) with respect to the third campaign that must be addressed because the contact center can defer handling these SMS text messages to a later time if needed. Therefore, the contact center can ignore the deficiency in this instance and the roster template is not changed. Accordingly, the SMS text messages received during the first shift on this given day are likely deferred to a later time when they can be handled.

After the roster template has been evaluated and all deficiencies that needed to be addressed have been so, the roster template in the example includes a first shift requiring twenty-six agents and a second shift requiring twenty-nine agents on the given day. At this point, a schedule is generated based on the roster template and the staff of the contact center, shown as Step 265.

“Staff” refers to one or more human resources (typically employees of the contact center) that can be allocated work. In particular instances, the staff can be characterized as having one or more common attributes. For example, a particular contact center may have multiple locations and the staff may be considered the group of employees that work at a particular location, or both locations. Further, the staff may comprise employees of a particular type and/or skill set. For example, one contact center may consider its employees to make up a first staff of agents and a second staff of supervisors and managers. One of ordinary skill in the art can envision numerous attributes that may be used to define a staff in light of this disclosure.

In addition, staff members (employees) may have individual skills assigned to them. For instance, a staff member's skill set may identify whether the staff member is able to actually handle a call (inbound or outbound) and also a Web chat and/or a SMS text message concurrently. For example, a first staff member's skill set may indicate the first staff member is able to handle a call, a Web chat, and a SMS text message concurrently, while a second staff member's skill set may indicate the second staff member is able to handle a call and a Web chat or a SMS text message concurrently. Therefore, in this example, the first staff member may more likely be scheduled to work the first or second shift for a given day when the three campaigns are being conducted over the second staff member since the first staff member can handle three channels of communication (a call, a Web chat, and a SMS text message) concurrently while the second staff member can only handle two channels of communication (a call and a Web chat or a SMS text message) concurrently.

Thus, the contact center staff is applied to the roster template to generate a schedule to conduct the three campaigns in the example. Accordingly, the schedule identifies specific members of the staff (e.g., agents) assigned to work in the set of shifts identified for the roster template. That is, the schedule identifies specific agents assigned to work the first shift and second shift for each day the three campaigns are to be conducted over the first week of June.

Finally, in particular embodiments, the campaign(s), forecast(s), and/or resulting roster template and schedule may be revised during execution of the campaign(s). Specifically, based on performance data after the campaigns have started, adjustments to the schedule may be generated. For instance, returning to the example, after the first two days have been completed for the three campaigns, performance data may be used to revise the campaigns, forecasts, roster template, and/or schedule. For example, the performance data may show that for the first two days of the campaigns, the twenty-six agents working the first shift have been unable to adequately handle the Web chats received by the contact center. Further, the performance data may show that for these same two days, the twenty-nine agents working the second shift have been able to adequately handle the calls, Web chats, and SMS text messages received by the contact center. Therefore, although the three campaigns' requirements are being adequately addressed for the second shift, they are not being adequately addressed for the first shift. As noted earlier, the deficiency parameters are met as long as the second shift has at least twenty-seven agents working the shift. Therefore, in this instance, the roster template may be revised to move an agent from the second shift to the first shift and the schedule may be revised accordingly.

Exemplary System Operation

The logical operations described herein may be implemented (1) as a sequence of computer implemented acts or one or more program modules running on a computing system and/or (2) as interconnected machine logic circuits or circuit modules within the computing system. The implementation is a matter of choice dependent on the performance and other requirements of the computing system. Accordingly, the logical operations described herein are referred to variously as states, operations, structural devices, acts, or modules. These operations, structural devices, acts, and modules may be implemented in software, in firmware, in special purpose digital logic, and any combination thereof. Greater or fewer operations may be performed than shown in the figures and described herein. These operations may also be performed in a different order than those described herein.

Mange Schedule Module

Turning now to FIG. 4, additional details are provided regarding the process flow for managing a schedule for multiple campaigns being conducted at virtually the same time or at times that overlap and make use of different channels of communication. In particular, FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing a manage schedule module for performing such functionality according to one embodiment of the invention. For example, the flow diagram shown in FIG. 4 may correspond to operations carried out by a processor in a system, such as the WFM 155, as it executes the manage schedule module stored in the system's volatile and/or nonvolatile memory. In various embodiments, to facilitate the generation and management of schedules directed to multiple campaigns, a contact center administrator may be provided with one or more interfaces in communication with the manage schedule module. These interfaces may comprise one or more screens from which the user (e.g., the contact center administrator) may generate and manage schedules to be used in conjunction with multiple campaigns being conducted at virtually the same time or at times that overlap and make use of different channels of communication.

In general, the manage schedule module invokes a number of other modules to provide functionality needed to be performed by the user in relation to generating, revising, implementing, and managing schedules for multiple campaigns. Such functionality includes generating, revising, implementing, and managing campaigns, forecasts, roster templates, and schedules. Further details with respect to the different modules are provided in the discussion below and FIGS. 5-9.

Turning now to FIG. 4, the manage schedule module provides an interface screen (“home screen”) with a number of different options for the user to select from. For example, if the user would like to simply revise a schedule previously generated and saved, the user selects the “manage schedule” option and the manage schedule module determines such in Operation 410 and takes the user to one or more subsequent screens for selecting the schedule and making the appropriate revisions. However, for purposes of providing this disclosure, it is assumed the user is generating a schedule for two or more new campaigns being conducted at virtually the same time or at times that overlap and make use of different channels of communication.

Thus, the user initially selects the option to generate a new campaign and the manage schedule module determines this option has been selected in Operation 415. As a result, the manage schedule module invokes the campaign module for generating a new campaign, shown as Operation 420. As is explained in greater detail below, the user generates each new campaign via the campaign module and saves the campaigns. The generation process for these new campaigns involves defining a number of parameters for each new campaign.

Depending on the embodiment, the user may be returned to the home screen displaying the different options or may be taken directly to one or more screens for generating a forecast for each new campaign. That is, depending on the embodiment, the manage schedule module may determine the option to generate a forecast has been selected in Operation 425 by the user selecting the option on the home screen or by the campaign module setting the option. Accordingly, the manage schedule module invokes the forecast module in Operation 430. As explained in further detail below, the forecast module generates a forecast based on the parameters defined for each new campaign and historical data on similar communications conducted for one or more past campaign(s). Depending on the type of campaign to be conducted, the forecast provides predictions on the number of communications to be made or expected to be received over the time period the campaign is to be conducted. From this, information can be determined regarding the likelihood of meeting the objectives (e.g., goals) of the new campaign.

Once the forecast module has generated a satisfactory forecast for each campaign, the manage schedule module determines whether the option to generate a roster template has been selected, shown as Operation 435. Similar to the forecast option, depending on the embodiment, the roster template option may be selected by the user on the home screen or by the forecast module. Thus, the manage schedule module invokes the roster template module, shown as Operation 440. As previously described, a roster template defines a group of shifts needed to meet the forecast requirements for the campaigns. In various embodiments, the user may define further characteristics (e.g., parameters) for the roster template. Once the user is satisfied with the roster template for the campaigns, the roster template module saves the roster template.

At this point, the manage schedule module determines whether the option to generate a schedule has been selected, shown as Operation 445. Again, the option may be selected by the user from the home screen or by the roster template module depending on the embodiment. Upon determining the option to generate a schedule has been selected, the manage schedule module invokes the schedule module, shown as Operation 450. Once the schedule module has been invoked, the user generates a schedule for conducting the campaigns by identifying staff to fill the set of shifts in the roster template. Similar to the roster template, the user may define further characteristics (e.g., parameters) for the schedule. Once the user is satisfied with the schedule, the schedule is saved.

Once the schedule has been generated and saved, the user may be presented with one or more screens to implement the schedule, shown as Operation 455. Depending on the embodiment, implementation of the schedule may involve different processing operations. For instance, in one embodiment, the schedule may simply be posted so that staff may view the schedule to determine when they are to work during the time the campaigns are to be conducted. However, in other embodiments, the schedule (and/or information from the schedule) may be uploaded to one or more other business enterprise systems in the contact center to facilitate further functionality during the time the campaigns are to be conducted. For example, in particular embodiments, supervisors may make use of monitoring systems to ensure agents are adhering to their schedules and working efficiently during the campaigns. Information taken from the schedule (such as, for instance, which agents are scheduled to work during a particular shift) may facilitate such monitoring. In other embodiments, the schedule may be communicated to individual staff members scheduled to work.

As the campaigns are carried out in the contact center, the user (e.g., the contact center administrator) may wish to manage the schedule based on changing circumstances surrounding the campaigns. For instance, an agent who is scheduled to work over the next three days the campaigns are to be run may suddenly become sick and unable to work. Thus, the user may invoke the manage schedule module and select the schedule from existing schedules. Accordingly, the manage schedule module determines the user has selected an existing schedule at Operation 410 and proceeds to Operation 450 so that the user may revise the schedule to replace the sick agent with another agent. Once the revision has been made, the user may then re-implement the schedule so that the change is reflected within the contact center systems.

In addition, the user may revise the schedule based on performance data collected for a portion of the campaigns that has been carried out. That is, after the campaigns have been conducted for a period of time, the user may revise the campaigns, forecasts, roster template, and/or schedule based on performance data collected for the campaigns during this period of time. Thus, returning to FIG. 4, once the user is presented with the one or more screens to manage the schedule, the user may indicate (e.g., select an option on a screen) that he would like to import performance data for the campaigns associated with the selected schedule. In response, the manage schedule module determines the user would like to import performance data, shown as Operation 460.

In one embodiment, the user may provide a source for the performance data before selecting the option to import the data. That is, for example, the performance data may be saved in a file or database and the user identifies the location of the file or database so that, upon selecting the option to import the performance data, the data is imported. However, in another embodiment, the user may first be taken to a different screen upon selecting the option to import the performance data. Once on the screen, the user may then identify the source of the performance data and select the option to “import.” Those of ordinary skill in the art can envision numerous ways in which the user can import the performance data in light of this disclosure. At this point, the manage schedule module imports the performance data, shown as Operation 465.

After the performance data has been imported, the user may revise the campaigns, forecasts, roster template, and/or schedule. For example, in a typical situation, the user may rerun one or more of the forecasts for one or more of the campaigns based on the performance data to determine whether the objectives for the campaigns may still be met in light of the current schedule and performance thus far. If the results of the forecasts are unsatisfactory, the user may then revise the campaigns, roster template, and/or schedule accordingly to produce a revised schedule. Thus, in various embodiments, the managing schedule module allows monitoring the performance of the campaigns and revising the schedule based on the monitored performance. Further details are now provided on the individual modules with regard to various embodiments of the invention.

Campaign Module

Turning now to FIG. 5, additional details are provided regarding the process flow for generating and managing campaigns. In particular, FIG. 5 is a flow diagram showing a campaign module for performing such functionality according to one embodiment of the invention. As mentioned, in various embodiments, the campaign module is invoked by the manage schedule module described above whenever a user generates or manages one or more campaigns. However, it should be understood that in other embodiments, the campaign module may be a stand-alone computer program module and may be used for generating campaigns without necessarily requiring generation of a forecast, template, and/or schedule. Thus, like the manage schedule module, the flow diagram shown in FIG. 5 may correspond to operations carried out by a processor in a system, such as the WFM 155 for example, as it executes the campaign module stored in the system's volatile and/or nonvolatile memory.

In various embodiments, the campaign module enables a user to manage an individual campaign by setting or modifying parameters associated with the campaign. For instance, in particular embodiments, the campaign module enables a user to indicate a particular campaign type for the campaign (e.g., inbound or outbound), set the channel of communication used for the campaign (e.g., call, Web chat, SMS text message, email, etc.), set campaign objectives (e.g., goals), set a time period over which the campaign will run, set skills required by agents working the campaign, set minimum and maximum staff available to work the campaign for a particular interval of time, set communication sources (e.g., queues) for the campaign, or any combination thereof. Once the user has generated and defined a campaign, the user is able to generate a forecast for the campaign.

Turning to FIG. 5, once the campaign module has been invoked, the user is provided an initial screen to select an existing campaign or define a new campaign. For example, in one embodiment, the user is provided with an initial screen that provides a listing of existing campaigns and the user may simply select the desired campaign from the listing. On the other hand, if the user wants to define a new campaign, the user is prompted to select the “New” button. A message appears on the screen requesting the user to enter a name for the new campaign and to click “Ok.”

Looking at the flow diagram on FIG. 5, the campaign module determines in Operation 510 whether the user wants to work with an existing campaign or define a new campaign. That is, in particular embodiments, the campaign module receives an indication whether the user has selected an existing campaign or has selected the “New” button. If the campaign module determines the user has selected an existing campaign, the module receives the selected campaign in Operation 515. However, if the campaign module determines the user has selected the “New” button and has entered a name for the new campaign, the module receives the new campaign in Operation 520.

At this point, in various embodiments, the user is presented with one or more screens displaying information (e.g., parameters) defined for the campaign. If the user is defining a new campaign, the fields for the information are typically blank so that the user may enter such information, although some of the fields may display default information. For example, in particular embodiments, the fields may include a description field so that the user may enter a short description of the campaign. In addition, the fields may include a field to indicate (e.g., select) the campaign type. For instance, in one embodiment, the user is given the option to set the campaign type to “inbound” or “outbound.” Accordingly, the user selects the appropriate campaign type based on whether he is building an inbound or an outbound campaign and the campaign module receives the select in Operation 525.

In addition, the fields may include a field for selecting the channel of communication to be used for the campaign. For example, the user may be given a drop down menu providing a listing of channels of communication that are available for the contact center. Such channels may include, for example, telephone calls, Web chats, SMS text messages, emails, instant messages, etc. The user selects the desired channel of communication and the campaign module receives the select in Operation 530. Thus, the selection of campaign type and channel of communication defines the overall type of campaign to be conducted by the contact center.

Another field that may be included indicates (e.g., select) a campaign run type. For instance, in particular embodiments, the user may select the option to set the campaign run type to “entire” or “periodical.” An entire campaign run type applies any objectives (e.g., goals) defined for the campaign across the entire time period the campaign is conducted. For example, the user may be generating an outbound call campaign and may define a goal for the campaign that is to be conducted over a week that requires five thousand calls to be made across the week. Thus, in this example, at the end of the first day of the outbound call campaign, a total of seven hundred and twenty calls may have been made. Therefore, at the start of the second day, four thousand two hundred and eighty calls still need to be made during the remainder of the week for the campaign. On the other hand, a periodical campaign run type applies the objectives (e.g., goals) to time periods that occur during the campaign (e.g., to every day) and each time period may have its own objectives to achieve. That is say, different time periods (e.g., different days) may have different objectives. For example, another outbound call campaign may be structured so that on weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., the objective is to place three hundred calls and on weekdays between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., the objective is to place six hundred calls. Accordingly, if the user selects a campaign run type, the campaign module receives this selection in Operation 535.

Depending on the embodiment, other fields may be included identifying other objectives of the campaign. For instance, in one embodiment, the user may indicate one or more target types for the campaign. For example, the user may be provided with a field to select the target type to be applied to the campaign run type. Further, the choices of the target type may be dependent on the type of campaign being run and the channel of communication being used to run the campaign. For instance, for an inbound communication campaign, the choices of target type may include: (1) a limit (e.g., a number or percentage) on a number of communications that can be lost once received and sitting in a queue during the entire campaign or particular time period in the campaign; (2) a limit on the amount of time communications are to remain in a queue before being serviced during the entire campaign or particular time period in the campaign; and (3) a number of communications that need to result in a targeted activity being completed. While for an outbound communication campaign, the choices of target type may include: (1) a total number of communications that need to be made during the entire campaign or particular time period in the campaign, (2) a number of communications that need to be answered by a party during the entire campaign or particular time period in the campaign, (3) a number of communications answered that need to be answered by the right party (Right Party Connects, RPC), and (4) a number of RPC that need to result in a targeted activity being completed. Further, the user may be provided with a field to enter a target value for the selected target type. For instance, if the user has selected a target type of RPC for an outbound communication campaign, the user may enter a value for the number of RPC to be achieved over the entire campaign or a particular time period of the campaign. Accordingly, the campaign module receives this information in Operations 540 and 545.

Further, in particular embodiments, the user may be provided with fields to enter the timeframe over which the campaign will be conducted. If so, the campaign module receives this information in Operation 550. For example, in one embodiment, fields are provided for the user to indicate the start date (e.g., day and time) and end date (e.g., day and time) for the campaign such as, for instance, Apr. 19, 2015, to Apr. 25, 2015. However, depending on the embodiment, the timeframe indicated by the user may identify a particular week(s), where other information defines when a week starts and ends. The user may indicate a number of days starting from a given date.

In addition, in particular embodiments, the user may be provided with fields to enter minimum and maximum staff required during a particular interval of time (e.g., day) for the campaign. If so, the campaign module receives the staff information in Operation 555. For example, the user may enter a value of twenty-five for the minimum staff required for each day of the campaign. As a result, the campaign will have at least twenty-five staff members working each day of the campaign. Similarly, the user may enter a value of forty for the maximum number of staff required for each day of the campaign. As a result, the campaign will have no more than forty staff members working each day of the campaign.

It is noted that in particular embodiments in which the campaigns are prioritized, the effect of prioritizing the campaigns (e.g., ranking the campaigns) is that during times of projected high demand for staff, the maximum number of staff from the highest prioritized campaign is allocated first. If there are still staff available (based on the contact center's capacity) then the next prioritized campaign's maximum staffing number is used, and so on.

Continuing on, the campaign module may provide one or more screens in particular embodiments so that the user may identify the sources for communications and/or the skills required by the staff members who work the campaign. Various contact centers routinely place communications (calls, Web chats, SMS text messages, etc.) in one or more queues until staff members (e.g., agents) become available to handle the communications. Depending on the embodiment, the queues may be set up based on any number of parameters. For instance, a queue may be set up for a particular campaign or for a particular skill set required by the agents servicing the communications placed in the queue. For example, an outbound campaign may be set up for placing outbound calls to potential customers informing them of an insurance company's new life insurance and long-term disability products. In this instance, the campaign may require agents trained on the new life insurance product and the new long-term disability product to work during the campaign. As a result, two queues may be set up for the campaign in which one of the queues processes calls pertaining to the life insurance product and the other of the queues processes calls pertaining to the long-term disability product. Such a configuration allows the calls to be directed to the properly trained agents working the campaign.

Thus in particular embodiments, the user may link one or more queues to a campaign. For instance, in one embodiment, the user right-clicks in a queue area provided on a screen and a list of available queues is provided. (In this particular embodiment, the queues available for the contact center have been previously defined prior to the user creating the campaign.) The user selects the desired queue and clicks a button to add the queue to the list of queues associated with the campaign. If the user wants to associate another queue with the campaign, the user selects another queue, and so forth. Therefore, one or more queues may be associated with the campaign and as a result, the campaign module receives the selected queues in Operation 560.

In particular embodiments, the user may link skills to the campaign. For instance, in one embodiment, the user right-clicks in the skills area provided on the screen and a list of available skills is provided. (Again, in these particular embodiments, the skills available for the staff of the contact center have been previously defined prior to the user creating the campaign.) The user selects the desired skill and clicks a button to add the skill to the list of skills associated with the campaign. It is noted that in various embodiments, the skill may be linked, not only to the campaign, but also to one or more particular queues if desired. Once the user has selected all of the desired skills, the campaign module receives the selected skills in Operation 565. As described in greater detail below, in particular embodiments, the skills associated with the campaign may also be linked to forecasts, roster templates, and schedules generated for the campaign.

At this point, the user select a button to save the campaign. Accordingly, the campaign module saves the campaign in Operation 570. It is noted that in various embodiments, the campaign module may be provided with additional capabilities. For instance, in one particular embodiment, the campaign module may provide a user with the capability to copy an existing campaign. Such a capability allows the user to build a new campaign based on an existing campaign's information (e.g., parameters). Also, particular embodiments of the campaign module may provide the capabilities to delete campaigns and to mark and manage inactive campaigns. One of ordinary skill in the art can envision other capabilities in light of this disclosure.

Forecast Module

Turning now to FIG. 6, additional details are provided regarding the process flow for generating and managing a forecast for a campaign. In particular, FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing a forecast module for performing such functionality according to one embodiment of the invention. Similar to the campaign module, in various embodiments, the forecast module may also be invoked by the manage schedule module described above whenever a user is to generate or manage a forecast for a campaign. However, it should be understood that in other embodiments, the forecast module may be a stand-alone computer program module. Thus, the flow diagram shown in FIG. 6 may correspond to operations carried out by a processor in a system, such as the WFM 155 for example, as it executes the forecast module stored in the system's volatile and/or nonvolatile memory.

Similar to the campaign module, the forecast module is configured to enable a user to generate new forecasts and/or to modify existing forecasts according to various embodiments of the invention. For example, in one embodiment, the user may select a forecast to modify from an initial screen listing existing forecasts. Thus, the operations in FIG. 5 may be carried out for a new or existing forecast. However, for purposes of disclosure, it is assumed the user has indicated he would like to generate a new forecast.

The forecast module begins with receiving a selection of a campaign in Operation 610. That is, the user selects a campaign for which the user wants to include in the forecast. For example, in particular embodiments, the user is presented with a screen that includes a listing of available campaigns. The user reviews the listing and selects the desired campaign.

As previously mentioned, normally a separate forecast for each campaign is generated in various embodiments to take into consideration agents' abilities to handle different channels of communication at virtually the same time. However, it may be advantageous in particular embodiments to generate a single forecast for multiple campaigns involving the same channel of communication because conducting concurrent campaigns using the same channel of communication likely have a more direct effect on each other because an agent handling a channel of communication for a first campaign directly affects whether or not the agent is available to handle the same channel of communication for a second campaign.

Therefore, in Operation 615, the forecast module determines whether the user has selected another campaign to add to the forecast. If so, Operation 610 is repeated and the forecast module receives the next selection of a campaign. Depending on the embodiment, the forecast module may control the additional campaign that can be selected by the user so that only a campaign using the same channel of communication can be selected. For instance, in one embodiment, the forecast module provides a listing of campaigns to select from that only includes campaigns having the same channel of communication as the first campaign selected. While in another embodiment, the forecast module checks the campaign selected by the user to ensure that the selected campaign has the same channel of communication. If not, then the forecast module may provide a warning to the user that the selected campaign is invalid. Further, in various embodiments, the forecast module may narrow the campaigns that may be selected based on other parameters beside just channel of communication such as timeframe for conducting the campaign and/or skill set required by staff members who work the campaigns.

Once the user has selected all of the applicable campaigns, the user selects a button to continue such as “Finish” or “Next” for example. As this point, the forecast module determines whether multiple campaigns have been selected in Operation 620. If so, the user may prioritize the selected campaigns in various embodiments. Thus, in Operation 625, the forecast module receives the campaign priority for the various selected campaigns. For instance, the user may determine a priority order for the selected campaigns resulting in a higher prioritized campaign having priority over a lower prioritized campaign with respect to properly staffing the campaigns and/or meeting campaign goals during the forecast generation. For example, suppose the agent seating capacity at the contact center is one hundred and the user has selected to generate a forecast for inbound call campaigns A, B, C, and D. The priority order for these campaigns is set as A, B, C, and D. The parameters for the four campaigns have been defined as shown in Table 1:

TABLE 1 Campaign Min Staff Max Staff A 35 45 B 25 35 C 10 20 D  5 15

The forecast initially calculates the staff as shown in Table 2:

TABLE 2 Staff Campaign A 45 Campaign B 25 Campaign C 10 Campaign D  5 Total 85

Since another fifteen agents can be potentially assigned to a campaign, the following occurs for the next interval based upon the priority order of the four campaigns as shown in Table 3:

TABLE 3 Staff Campaign A  45 Campaign B  35 Campaign C  15 Campaign D  5 Total 100

As evident, for this particular example, the forecast module is configured to allocate agents to Campaign A to its maximum capacity first, then allocate agents to Campaign B to its maximum capacity second, and so forth until all of the capacity for the contact center has been used. That is say, in this particular embodiment, the forecast module is configured to allocate agents to the various campaigns to the maximum capacity for each campaign based on the priority order of the campaigns during generating the forecast without proportioning the “spare staff” available across all of the campaigns.

The next operation in generating an outbound forecast is for the user to select a historical dataset as the basis of the forecast. In one embodiment, the user is provided with a screen from which the user can select a dataset. For instance, this screen may allow the user to navigate to a location of existing datasets and to select a desired dataset from a listing of existing datasets. Depending on the embodiment, the datasets may be stored in various data structures such as, for example, files or databases. Further, depending on the embodiment, the datasets may comprise different types of data for previously conducted (e.g., historical) campaigns. For instance, the datasets may be grouped according to channels of communication, time periods, and the queues used to conduct the campaigns. However, in other instances, the datasets may be grouped according to other parameters such as based on customer or the subject matter for the campaigns. For example, in one embodiment, one or more datasets may be based on outbound call campaigns conducted for soliciting donations for charities while one or more other datasets may be based on inbound call campaigns conducted for handling technical support calls received for various products. Further, datasets may be combined into a “master” dataset to be used for forecasting purposes. One of ordinary skill in the art can envision numerous groupings of datasets in light of this disclosure. However, typically, a user would select a dataset (or combined datasets into a “master” dataset) with similar characteristics to the one or more campaigns for which the user is generating a forecast for. Thus, the forecast module receives the selected dataset in Operation 630.

Next, the user defines parameters for the forecast and the forecast module receives the parameters in Operation 635. For instance, in various embodiments, the parameters may include a start date for the forecast, a location to save the forecast, an indication of how much of the historical dataset to use for the forecast, and/or whether to include “special days” from the dataset. For example, the user may select a forecast start date of Apr. 20, 2015, and a location of Location1. Depending on the embodiment, Location1 may just indicate a particular location on the contact center's system to store the forecast such as, for example, the data store 175 shown in FIG. 1. However, in particular embodiments, Location1 may also indicate a particular location for the contact center. For example, the contact center may have office locations in Atlanta and Chicago and the location selected by the user may also identify which office location the forecast relates to. For these particular embodiments, this may help the user to keep forecasts better organized and may help the user to better search and identify desired forecasts.

The user may indicate that four weeks of data should be used from the dataset in generating the forecast and that any “special days” that fall within the four weeks should be included in the data used for generating the forecast. In particular embodiments, special days include days that are typically considered out of the “norm” for an operational day of a campaign. That is to say, special days usually have a communication pattern considered quite different than an ordinary day for the contact center. For instance, public holidays or days in which the contact center encountered an unusual situation such as a server crash may be marked as special days. Therefore, depending on the campaigns for which the user is generating the forecast for, the user may wish to include or exclude the special days of data that may be included in the dataset since these days could potentially affect the forecast dramatically.

In Operation 640, the forecast module receives a forecast type used to generate the forecast. Similar to campaign types, in various embodiments, forecast types that may be generated include an “entire” forecast or a “periodical” forecast. For an “entire” forecast, any selected target types and values are applied across the entire forecast. That is to say, each day and time interval will in effect count down towards the target. For a “periodical” forecast, each day and time interval will have its own selected targets to achieve. For this type, different days and time intervals can have different targets.

At this point, the user is taken to a screen that enables the user to review and amend the selected time period (e.g., days) of historical data that is to be used as a basis of the forecast. For instance, in one embodiment, the screen displays each day of the selected time period from the historical dataset (e.g., four weeks) and the number of events (e.g., communications placed or received) for each day. Thus, the user can review the days and events for each day to identify whether any particular days may be considered outliers that the user may want to exclude in the forecast. For example, a majority of the days may indicate that approximately four hundred and eighty events occurred for each day however one of the days may indicate that only three hundred events occurred on that day. This may be for any number of reasons such as, for example, a number of communication trunks may have been down that day or the data for the events may not have been recorded or may have been lost. Therefore, the user may want to exclude this day from the days used for generating the forecast. Thus, in Operation 645, the forecast module receives the dates (e.g., days) selected to include (or exclude depending on the embodiment) from the dataset.

Further, in particular embodiments, the user may also be able to review the specific data for each selected day to ensure the data is consistent and available for each day. For example, in one embodiment, the user may be provided with a missing values screen that provides a listing of selected days with missing values (e.g., data). For this embodiment, the user may select a day with missing values and may edit the values accordingly to address the missing values. If too many values are missing, the user may be able to clear the day from the selected dates for the dataset. Thus, in Operation 650, the forecast module determines whether the dataset has been edited. If so, the forecast module receives the edits to the dataset in Operation 655.

As described earlier, a number of parameters are defined when a campaign is generated and these originally defined parameters may be considered default parameters for the campaign. However, in various embodiments, the forecast module is configured to provide the user with the capability to edit the default parameters for the selected campaign(s) if desired. Therefore, in these particular embodiments, the user may select a particular campaign and edit the campaign's parameters such as, for example, the goals (e.g., target type and/or target value) for the campaign, the time period for which the campaign will be conducted, and the staff requirements (e.g., minimum and/or maximum agents required) for the campaign. Further, in particular embodiments, the user may indicate whether to enforce minimum staffing requirements for the campaign. If so, the forecast module allocates the minimum number of staff (e.g., agents) for all time intervals and/or queues in the forecast regardless of whether the target is met. Thus, in Operation 660, the forecast module determines whether parameters for any of the selected campaigns have been edited. If so, the forecast module receives the edits in Operation 665.

At this point, the forecast module provides the user with a summary screen in various embodiments that shows the parameters to be used to generate the forecast (e.g., historical dataset, forecast start date, forecast type, etc.). If the user is happy with the parameters, the user selects “Finish” and the forecast module generates the forecast, shown as Operation 670. In particular embodiments, the module provides a generated forecast results screen that generally displays the number of communications forecasted to be placed or received during each defined time period (e.g., each time interval). In addition, depending on the type of campaigns being forecasted, the screen may include additional information such as, for example, a predicted average handle time (AHT) for handling communications, a computed number of staff needed to handle the communications, and/or a number of communications that need to be placed or received to achieve any targets defined for the campaigns.

In particular embodiments, the forecast module may also provide the user with the capability to smooth the queues in the forecast. Smoothing a queue removes any sharp peaks or troughs in the generated forecasted staff for the particular queue which may allow for a more efficient shift pattern to be generated in order to meet the forecasted shift requirements.

In one particular embodiment, the user selects one or more campaign queues to smooth, the dates of the forecast to include in the smoothing process, and the number of smoothing passes to make. Further, the user may indicate that a copy of the forecast is to be smoothed so that it may be compared to the original forecast. An example of smoothing the forecasted staff for all of the selected queues for a particular forecast on a selected date is shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B. FIG. 7A displays the forecasted staff prior to smoothing for all of the queues associated with the forecast for July 6th. FIG. 7B displays the forecasted staff after the staff has been smoothed for all of the queues associated with the forecast. As one can see, the peaks and troughs in the original forecast for the staff have been smoothed out. As a result, a more efficient shift pattern may be generated for the forecasted shift requirements.

Returning to FIG. 6, at this point, the user may decide whether the generated forecast is acceptable or whether to revise some of the parameters for the forecast and to regenerate the forecast. Thus, in Operation 675, the forecast module determines whether the user wishes to revise some of the parameters and to regenerate the forecast. If so, the forecast module returns to a point in the process where the user has an opportunity to revise one or more of the selected campaigns for the forecast, the campaign priority, the selected dataset(s), the forecast parameters, the forecast type, selected dates for the historical dataset, data in the dataset, and/or parameters for the selected campaigns. Once the user finds the forecast acceptable, the user selects the “Save” button and the forecast module saves the forecast, shown as Operation 680. Once saved, the forecast may now be used to generate a roster template for conducting the one or more campaigns associated with the forecast.

Finally it is noted that in various embodiments, like the campaign module, the forecast module may provide additional capabilities such as the capability to copy an existing forecast, delete forecasts, and/or mark and manage inactive forecasts. One of ordinary skill in the art can envision other capabilities in light of this disclosure.

Roster Template Module

Turning now to FIG. 8, additional details are provided regarding the process flow for generating and managing a roster template for two or more campaigns to be conducted involving different channels of communication. In particular, FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing a roster template module for performing such functionality according to one embodiment of the invention. Similar to the campaign and forecast modules, in various embodiments, the roster template module may also be invoked by the manage schedule module described above whenever a user is to generate or manage a roster template for multiple campaigns. However, it should be understood that in other embodiments, the roster template module may be a stand-alone computer program module. Thus, the flow diagram shown in FIG. 8 may correspond to operations carried out by a processor in a system, such as the WFM 155 for example, as it executes the roster template module stored in the system's volatile and/or nonvolatile memory.

Similar to the campaign and forecast modules, the roster template module is configured to enable a user to generate new roster templates and/or to modify existing roster templates according to various embodiments of the invention. For example, in one embodiment, the user is provided with an initial screen that provides a listing of existing roster templates from which the user may select a template to modify. Thus, the operations displayed in FIG. 8 may be carried out for a new or existing roster template. However, for purposes of this disclosure, it is assumed the user had indicated he would like to generate a new roster template.

Therefore, beginning with Operation 810, the roster template module receives a selection of two or more campaigns involving different channels of communication. Generally speaking, the two or more campaigns are to be conducted during the same time period or during time periods in which a portion of the time periods overlap. Therefore, in particular embodiments, the roster template module provides a listing of campaigns from which the user may select that may be narrowed down based on the user's selection to campaigns that are to be conducted during the same time period or during a time period that has a portion that overlaps with the time period the first campaign is to be conducted. Accordingly, at least a portion of the time periods in which the selected campaigns are to be conducted run concurrently.

Once the campaigns have been selected, the user then identifies the priority of each of the selected campaigns. As previously mentioned, the campaigns are prioritized in various embodiments with respect to importance of meeting the needs of the different campaigns. Generally speaking, some channels of communication such as, for example, telephone calls and Web chats are typically viewed as communications that should be addressed almost immediately upon receiving them. This is because such a communication typically has a party who has placed or received the communication that is actively present on the communication and ready to interact with another party on the communication. Thus, most contact centers consider such communications should be handled quickly upon receiving or placing them so that the parties who have placed or received the communications can be serviced in an effective manner and have a pleasant and positive experience. Although many contact centers do make use of queues to hold such communications when agents are not immediately available to handle them, most of these contact centers still try to service these communications as quickly and efficiently as possible since the expectation of a party who has placed or received such a communication is that the communication will reach an agent quickly who can efficiently and effectively handle the communication.

However in contrast, other channels of communication such as, for example, emails are typically viewed as communications that are not necessarily required to be addressed immediately upon receiving them. This is because many parties who send such communications do not normally expect an immediate response to such a communication and thus are not actively present on the communication waiting for a response. Therefore, many contact centers do not consider that such communications need to be handled immediately upon receiving them and may defer such communications to a later time when the contact center has sufficient resources (e.g., agents) to handle them.

With that said, other factors may influence setting the priority of the selected campaigns besides the channels of communication being used. For instance, in particular embodiments, the priority may also be contingent on the reason and/or the subject matter of the communications. For example, a contact center may consider a campaign involving inbound calls to technical support as having very high priority because the contact center may want to ensure customers who are calling into technical support have their issues resolved quickly so that they remain loyal customers. While in another instance, the contact center may consider a campaign involving inbound SMS text messages requesting product information to have a relatively low priority because such messages may be deferred since such information can be sent at a later time and still fulfill the senders' requests adequately.

Accordingly, once the user has identified the priorities for the selected campaigns, the roster template module receives the information in Operation 815. At this point, the roster template module retrieves the forecasts generated for the selected campaigns in Operation 820. In particular embodiments, if a forecast has not yet been generated for a particular campaign, the roster template module may inform the user of such and may invoke the forecast module so that the user may generate a forecast for the campaign.

Once the forecasts have been retrieved, the roster template module generates a roster template for the highest prioritized campaign that satisfies the requirements (needs) identified by the forecast generated for the campaign in Operation 825. Accordingly, in various embodiments, the roster template module generates a roster template for the highest prioritized campaign that identifies the types of shifts needed to meet the requirements of the forecast for the campaign and calculates how many instances of each shift are required based on the forecast (e.g., shift profile). In addition, the generated roster template may also identify the type and number of staff required to work each individual shift (e.g., staffing profile), the skills required for each individual shift to ensure only staff with the appropriate skills work that shift (e.g., skills profile), and/or breaks or other scheduled activities (e.g., training) that are to occur during each individual shift (e.g., activity profile). Depending on the embodiment, the shift profile, staffing profile, and/or activity profile are configured based on parameters defined for the selected campaign and/or other rules established for the contact center. For example, the campaign may include parameters defining the skills required to work on the campaign. Further, the contact center may be required to provide each staff member a thirty minute break for lunch if the staff member works a shift of eight hours or more. Thus, in various embodiments, the roster template module makes uses of these defined parameters and rules in forming the staffing, skills, and/or activity profiles for each generated shift.

Once the roster template has been generated, the user can review the shifts and make any necessary revisions. For instance, in various embodiments, the roster template module may provide the user with the capability to add or revise shifts. For example, a shift may be revised to increase the staffing profile associated with a shift to include additional staff to work the shift. That is, when the roster template module generated the roster template, the module may have identified a 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. shift requiring twelve agents to work the shift for one or more days. However, the user may also like to assign a supervisor to work the shift as well. Therefore, the user revises the shift to add the supervisor to the staffing profile for the 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. shift. Similar types of revisions can be made to skills profiles and the activity profiles for the various shifts as well as to shifts themselves in various embodiments.

Once the user indicates he is satisfied with the configuration of the roster template, the roster template module evaluates the roster template based on the requirements (needs) identified in the forecast generated for the next highest prioritized campaign in Operation 830. That is to say, the roster template module evaluates the roster template to determine whether the shifts and corresponding staff identified in the template would adequately staff the next highest prioritized campaign.

Accordingly, the contact center may define in various embodiments one or more parameters (e.g., rules) used to evaluate the roster template to determine whether the template adequately staffs the next highest prioritized campaign. For instance, the contact center may define a threshold number or percentage of communications or required staff that may identify an instance in which the roster template does not adequately staff the next highest prioritized campaign (a deficiency). For example, the contact center may define a parameter identifying a percentage of communications and/or required staff identified in the forecast generated for the next highest prioritized campaign that must be addressed and/or provided for by the roster template.

For instance, the forecast generated for the next highest prioritized campaign may identify required staff of thirty, twenty-five, twenty, and thirty-five needed to handle the number of communications predicted to be received for thirty-minute time intervals beginning at 9:00 a.m. and ending at 11:00 a.m. for a particular weekday. That is to say, the forecast indicates that thirty agents are needed from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., twenty-five agents are needed from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., twenty agents are needed from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and thirty-five agents are needed from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. to handle the number of communications predicted to be received in the forecast for the particular weekday. In this instance, the roster template includes a shift for the particular weekday beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ending at 4:00 p.m. that identifies thirty agents to work during the shift and the contact center has defined a parameter that at least eighty percent of the staff required for any time interval in the forecast must be actually scheduled.

Thus, in this example, the roster template module determines a deficiency exists in Operation 835 in that the time interval from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on the weekday requires thirty-five agents to work to handle the number of communications forecasted to be received for the time interval, however the roster template only identifies thirty agents to work the shift during this time interval. Accordingly, the roster template module determines whether the deficiency needs to be addressed in Operation 840. Thus, in this instance, the contact center requires that at least eighty percent of the staff required by the forecast for any time interval be actually staffed for the particular time interval. Therefore, the roster template module determines the deficiency does not need to be addressed since the roster template provides for thirty agents during the time interval, which equals to eighty-six percent of the staff required for the interval.

It should be noted that in this instance, the contact center's agents are able to handle communications for the next highest prioritized campaign at the same time the agents are able to handle communications for the highest prioritized campaign. Therefore, each of the thirty agents working during the shift from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the particular weekday can handle a communication for the highest prioritized campaign and a communication for the next highest prioritized campaign at virtually the same time. However if this were not the case, then the roster template may come to a different determination at Operation 840.

For example, if the highest prioritized campaign is a campaign to handle inbound calls received for a helpline service and the next highest prioritized campaign is a campaign to handle outbound calls placed to customer leads, then an agent handling an inbound call for the highest prioritized campaign cannot handle an outbound call placed for the next highest prioritized campaign at virtually the same time. Therefore, the deficiency described above would need to be addressed by the roster template module since eighty percent of the staff required for the time interval is not being actually staffed.

The same would be determined had the time interval required forty staff members instead of thirty-five staff members. In this instance, the roster template module would determine the deficiency needs to be addressed since the roster template provides for only seventy-five percent of the staff required for the interval. Therefore, the roster template module determines what adjustment must be made to the roster template to address the deficiency in Operation 845. In this instance, at least two additional staff members need to be added to the shift in the template to adequately address the deficiency. Accordingly, the roster template module could simply add two additional staff members to the shift to address the deficiency. However, this solution may not always be available. For instance, the contact center may have a maximum number of agents that are allowed to work in a week and that number may have already been reached with respect to the total number of agents required for all of the shifts in the roster template for the week. Therefore, the roster template module cannot just simply be modified to provide two additional agents to the shift to address the deficiency in the template.

Instead, the roster template module may determine to move two agents from a different shift to the shift with the deficiency to address the deficiency. For example, a second shift may be included in the roster template for the particular weekday that runs from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. that currently has thirty-seven staff identified for the shift. Accordingly, the roster template module may adjust the roster template in operation 850 and move two of the agents from this shift to the shift with the deficiency. As a result, the shift that runs from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. now has thirty-two agents identified for the shift in the roster template and the shift that runs from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. now has thirty-five staff identified for the shift in the roster template. Furthermore, the deficiency has been addressed.

At this point, the roster template module determines whether to continue to evaluate the roster template in light of the current next highest prioritized campaign in Operation 855. That is to say, the roster template module determines whether any additional requirements in the forecast for the next highest prioritized campaign need to be considered based on the remaining shifts defined in the roster template and parameters defined by the contact center to ensure the campaign will be adequately staffed using the roster template. If so, then the roster template returns to Operation 830 and continues the evaluation.

However, if the roster template module has completed the evaluation of the roster template with respect to the current next highest prioritized campaign, then the roster template determines whether there are any additional campaigns to consider in Operation 860. If so, then the roster template moves to the next highest prioritized campaign and returns to Operation 830 and carries out the operations described above with respect to this campaign. Once all of the selected campaigns have been considered, the roster template module saves the roster template in Operation 865. At this point, a roster template has been developed based on the forecasts generated for two or more selected outbound campaigns involving different channels of communication. This roster template may now be applied to staff of the contact center to generate a schedule for conducting the two or more campaigns.

Finally it is noted that in various embodiments, like the campaign and forecast modules, the roster template module may provide additional capabilities to a user such as the capability to copy an existing roster template, delete templates, and/or mark and manage inactive templates. One of ordinary skill in the art can envision other capabilities in light of this disclosure.

Schedule Module

Turning now to FIG. 9, additional details are provided regarding the process flow for creating and managing schedules for campaigns. In particular, FIG. 9 is a flow diagram showing a schedule module for performing such functionality according to one embodiment of the invention. Similar to the campaign, forecast, and roster template modules, in various embodiments, the schedule module may also be invoked by the manage schedule module described above whenever a user generates or manages one or more schedules for campaigns. However, it should be understood that in other embodiments, the schedule module may be a stand-alone computer program module. Thus, the flow diagram shown in FIG. 9 may correspond to operations carried out by a processor in a system, such as the WFM 155 for example, as it executes the schedule module stored in the system's volatile and/or nonvolatile memory.

Similar to the campaign, forecast, and roster template modules, the schedule module is configured to enable a user to generate new schedules and/or to modify existing schedules according to various embodiments of the invention. For example, in one embodiment, the user is provided with an initial screen that provides a listing of existing schedules from which the user may select a schedule to modify. Thus, the operations displayed in FIG. 9 may be carried out for a new or existing schedule. However, for purposes of this disclosure, it is assumed the user has indicated he would like to generate a new schedule based on an existing roster template for two or more campaigns involving different channels of communication.

Generally, the schedule module in various embodiments is configured to generate a schedule by allocating staff to an existing roster template that has been created for two or more campaigns involving multiple channels of communication. The goal is that when the schedule is generated, the schedule meets the requirements of the corresponding forecasts for the campaigns and the subsequent roster template. In general, a “schedule” is understood to be a set of shift cycles with specific staff allocated to the shifts. In many instances, the schedule applies to a particular location of a contact center. However, in other instances, the schedule may apply to multiple locations of the contact center. For purposes of this disclosure, a “shift cycle” is understood to be a series (e.g., group) of shifts. Depending on the embodiment, a shift cycle may be generated to contain any realistic sequence of shifts and can be any length. For example, a shift cycle may include a day shift, an evening shift, and a night shift for each day of seven consecutive days (e.g., a week) totaling twenty-one shifts for the shift cycle.

In various embodiments, the schedule module uses availability information for each staff member to determine how a member is allocated to the shifts. Depending on the embodiment, this availability information may be made available through any number of different mechanisms such as, for example, one or more databases storing information on staff members or through a manage roster program used to manage the staff members of the contact center and their corresponding information.

Turning now to FIG. 9, the user reviews a listing of existing roster templates presented on a computer screen and selects the appropriate roster template from the listing. In turn, the schedule module receives the selected roster template in Operation 910. At this point, the user identifies the staff to apply to the selected roster template. In various embodiments, the user is provided with a screen that allows the user to pick a location where to save the schedule and one or more staff to apply to the roster template. As previously described, staff is one or more human resources (e.g., employees) of the contact center and may be further limited as those human resources sharing common attributes. For instance, a staff may be one or more human resources working at a particular location.

After selecting one or more staff, the user is provided with a “Select Staff” screen in particular embodiments. Such a screen enables the user to manually include and/or exclude members of the selected staff from being placed on the schedule. For example, in one embodiment, the screen may show a listing of all of the staff members along with a checkbox beside each staff member's name. The checkbox for each member may be initially checked indicating the staff member is eligible to be scheduled and the user goes through the list of members and un-checks the checkboxes for any members the user would like to exclude from being scheduled.

In addition, in particular embodiments, the screen may provide the user with other capabilities to identify staff members eligible to be scheduled (e.g., to apply to the roster template). For instance, in one embodiment, a checkbox may be provided that indicates to “use only primary skills.” If checked, the schedule module only allocates staff members with the appropriate primary skills to shifts in the roster template that require those skills in the skills profile. In addition, in another embodiment, some of the members may have a base roster defined that indicates the members are scheduled for the same work shifts over a defined period of time (e.g., weekly). That is say, for example, a particular staff member with a base roster may receive the same shifts on the same days for every schedule. In this embodiment, the screen may allow the user to indicate whether staff members' base rosters should be ignored or adhered to, or whether such members should be excluded from the staff applied to the roster template.

After the user has indicated the one or more staff to apply to the selected roster template, the schedule module receives the selection in Operation 915. In turn, the schedule module generates a schedule based on the selected roster template and staff, shown as Operation 920. The resulting schedule comprises the shifts identified in the roster template populated with identified members of the selected staff.

As previously mentioned, in various embodiments, the schedule module is configured to apply availability information for each of the staff members in populating the different shifts of the schedule. In addition, in various embodiments, the schedule module makes use of other information and rules associated with the campaigns, roster template, and/or contact center in populating the shifts of the schedule with staff members. For instance, in particular embodiments, the roster template defines skills required to be assigned to particular shifts of the schedule and the schedule module considers these skills requirements in determining which members of the staff are to work a particular shift.

One important aspect that is considered in various embodiments is a staff member's skills in handling different channels of communication at virtually the same time since the campaigns being scheduled involve using different channels of communication. For instance, the campaigns being scheduled may involve a first campaign for handling inbound calls to technical support, a second campaign for handling Web chats received from potential customers visiting a website, and a third campaign for handling SMS text messages received that request product information. Thus, in this particular instance, the schedule module considers each staff member's skills in handling these channels of communication in considering whether to schedule them or not for shifts. Specifically, the skills defined for a first staff member may indicate the member is able to handle a call and at least one of a Web chat and a SMS text message at virtually the same time. While the skills defined for a second staff member may indicate the member is only able to handle a call, a Web chat, or a SMS text message at any one time and therefore is not able to handle multiple communications at virtually the same time. Therefore, the schedule module would likely only consider the first staff member as eligible to work the shifts involving the three campaigns since any staff working these shifts is likely to have to be able to handle multiple communications at virtually the same time.

In addition, another related skill the schedule module may consider in determining whether to schedule a particular staff member is the particular staff member's average handle times (“AHTs”) in handling communications involving the different channels of communication. For instance, two different staff members may be able to handle a call and a Web chat at virtually the same time. However, the first staff member's AHT for a Web chat is twelve minutes while the second staff member's AHT for a Web chat is ten minutes. Accordingly, the schedule module may consider scheduling the second staff member over the first staff member for the shifts since the second staff member typically handles Web chats faster than the second staff member.

At this point, the user may review the generated schedule to determine whether the schedule is acceptable or whether the schedule should be revised. For instance, in various embodiments, the user is provided with one or more screens for reviewing details of the schedule and/or the roster template and making any necessary revisions accordingly. For example, in particular embodiments, the user is provided with the capability to review and revise the various profiles (e.g., shifts, staffing, skills, and activities) of the roster template as appropriate and have the schedule module regenerate the schedule. Depending on the embodiment, such revisions to the roster template may be permanently applied to the roster template or may only be applied in the context of the currently generated schedule.

In addition, contact centers may also implement rules in various embodiments that are to be followed by the schedule module when creating a schedule. For instance, in particular embodiments, contact centers may implement rules with respect to how much and/or how often staff members are allowed to work at the contact centers and/or on campaigns (e.g., hours rules). For example, the schedule module may apply one or more rules for the minimum hours that should be provided between shifts, the maximum number of consecutive shifts a staff member can work, the maximum number of shifts a staff member can work before being given time off, the maximum shift length, and/or the maximum and minimum number of minutes between breaks.

Further, the schedule module may apply similar types of rules for taking time off (e.g., days off rules). For example, in one embodiment, the schedule module may apply one or more days off rules for the number of consecutive days off a staff member is supposed to receive, what days are considered preferred days off (e.g., weekend days), and/or preferred days off patterns that specify a preferred number of days given off in a row for a specified number of times. Thus, in various embodiments, the user may be provided with the capability to revise these rules, such as hours rules and/or days off rules, to be applied in generating the schedule.

Furthermore, the user may also be provided with one or more screens in particular embodiments to set a weight associated with the application of various rules used during the schedule generation process. That is say, in these particular embodiments, the user may indicate which rules carry more weight to provide the schedule module with an order in which to fulfill the requirements of the rules surrounding the schedule generation process. For instance, in one embodiment, the user is provided with a screen listing the different rules to be applied during the schedule generation process and each rule is associated with a field in which the user can type in a “weighting factor” for the particular rule to identify the amount of weighting that rule should be given during the schedule generation process. For example, by increasing the weighting factor of the rule for the number of consecutive days off a staff member is supposed to receive the schedule module places a relative emphasis on adhering to this rule when generating the schedule. That is say, the schedule module places more emphasis on the importance of adhering to this rule than to other rules with a lesser weighting factor. In other embodiments, a default set of values can be used for the various weighting factors.

In addition, the user may also be provided with the option to set a shift fill factor on a particular screen that represents a percentage of staff that should be scheduled for a shift by the schedule module before the module moves on to schedule staff for the next shift. Setting a shift fill factor may be used to evenly populate all the shifts across the entire schedule. For example, suppose the shift fill factor has been set to twenty percent and the roster template requires ten agents to be scheduled for each shift. When the schedule module generates the schedule, the module initially schedules two agents for each shift across the entire schedule (i.e., twenty percent of the staffing requirement). Thereafter, the schedule module continues to cycle through the shifts and schedule twenty percent of the staffing requirement for each shift until either the shifts are filled or no more agents are available to schedule. Accordingly, a schedule is generated that ensures at least a minimal number of agents are working each shift on the schedule as a result of setting a shift fill factor.

In addition, in particular embodiments, the user may also be given the option to set a fill strategy that identifies the method used by the schedule module to fill the shifts in the schedule. For instance, the user may be given the option to set the fill strategy to fill by utilization. For this strategy, the schedule module assesses how difficult it is to populate each shift and then fills the shifts in the schedule in an order of the most difficult shifts to fill to the easiest shifts to fill. In some embodiments, the schedule module determines how difficult a shift is to populate based upon how many staff members are required to fill the shift and divides that by the number of staff members available to work the shift. Other options to set for the fill strategy may include filling the shifts in chronological order from the beginning of the schedule or permitting the schedule module to randomly select how to fill the shifts.

In various embodiments, the user may also be provided with the option to set shift counts rules. Such rules enable the user to identify which shifts are not to be over-scheduled with staff, which shifts are to be considered last in the scheduling staff allocation, and/or how many staff can be allocated to a particular shift. In these particular embodiments, the user may be provided with one or more screens for setting shift counts rules. For example, in one embodiment, the rules for not over-scheduling shifts or for considering shifts last in the staff allocation are each associated with a listing of the entire shifts for the schedule. To apply a rule to a particular shift, the user selects the shift (e.g., checks the checkbox) in the appropriate listing for the rule. As for the rule setting the number of staff that can be allocated to a particular shift, this rule may also be associated with a listing of the entire shifts for the schedule in which the user may enter a value for the maximum number of staff that can be allocated to any particular shift. As a result, when the schedule module generates the schedule, the module takes into consideration the shifts that have been identified for each shift counts rule.

Further, in various embodiments, the user may also be provided with options to define additional allocation rules to be followed when the schedule module generates the schedule. For example, in particular embodiments, the user may be provided the option to set allocation for permanent staff, casual staff (e.g., temporary and/or seasonal staff), full-time staff, part-time staff, union staff, non-union staff, etc. to a percentage. For example, if allocation is set to one hundred percent for permanent staff, permanent staff who fit the selected criteria are allocated shifts until they are scheduled to work their maximum number of hours allowed. Likewise, if allocation is set to one hundred percent for casual staff, casual staff who fit the selected criteria are allocated shifts until they are scheduled to work their maximum number of hours allowed. Further, the user may be provided with an option to set an indicator for which type of employee (e.g., permanent or casual) is given preference in filling a shift vacancy.

Other examples of options that may be provided in various embodiments include an option to schedule staff based upon defined staff links. For example, in particular embodiments, contact centers may make use of a manage roster program and to define properties for each staff member. These defined properties may be stored in non-volatile memory such as, for example, in one or more databases residing on a data store 175 within the contact center architecture 100. Depending on the embodiment, the properties may include such information as a staff member's personal details such as home address and phone number, details about the member's work such as location where the member works, the team the member belongs to, and position the member holds, the hours the member is available to work (e.g., availability information), the skills the member holds, any shifts requests by the member, and/or other similar information.

In particular embodiments, the staff members' information includes “staff links” used to link staff members together to indicate that such members must either work together or never work together. For example, a contact center may want to establish a staff link between two members to always work together so that one of the members can act as a mentor to the other member or so a new member who is taking over for an existing member can work alongside the existing member to learn the existing member's job. Further, a contact center may want to establish a staff link between two members to never work together to ensure two members who have in-depth knowledge on a particular subject are never scheduled together so as to allow the knowledge to be shared across the shifts. Thus, in particular embodiments, the user may be provided with the option to indicate that such links should be adhered to by the schedule module during the schedule generation process.

Another option that is provided to the user in various embodiments is whether staff costs should be taken into consideration by the schedule module during the schedule generation process. In these particular embodiments, if the staff cost option is selected, the schedule module generates the cheapest possible schedule based upon the defined staffing costs (e.g., based upon the hourly rates defined for each of the staff members). Another option includes whether overtime is allowed. If this option is selected, the schedule module is permitted to schedule staff members for more hours than their pre-defined maximum hours to ensure adequate staffing for the schedule. Other options that may be included in various embodiments are (1) whether start times for staff members should occur within a defined range, (2) whether to ensure staff are allocated to shifts in a way that roughly evens out the hours allocated to members by a percentage, (3) whether breaks should be automatically included in the schedule based on predefined break rules, (4) whether location hours should be considered in scheduling staff members for shifts, and (5) whether a staff member only receives a shift if the member has the skill(s) required for the shift.

Returning now to FIG. 9, the user may review the schedule details and revise any of the parameters described above with respect to the schedule. Thus, in Operation 925, the schedule module determines whether any such parameters have been revised. If so, the schedule module receives the parameters, at Operation 930, and re-generates the schedule based on the revisions, in Operation 920. This process continues until the user is satisfied with the schedule. At that point, the user chooses to save the schedule and the schedule module saves the schedule in the appropriate location, shown as Operation 935.

At this point, the schedule may now be used to carry out the two or more campaigns tied to the schedule. In addition, as previously described, the schedule may be revised as the campaigns are carried out based on actual performance to adjust the schedule to be better aligned with the campaigns' goals.

Finally it is noted that in various embodiments, like the campaign, forecast, and roster template modules, the schedule module may provide additional capabilities such as the capability to copy an existing schedule, delete schedules, and/or mark and manage inactive schedules. One of ordinary skill in the art can envision other capabilities in light of this disclosure.

First Example to Demonstrate Functionality of Various Embodiments

A first example is now provided to help demonstrate the functionality of various embodiments of the invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that this example is provided for demonstration purposes only and should not be construed to limit the scope of various embodiments of the invention.

In this example, a contact center has been contracted to conduct a first inbound campaign that involves handling technical support calls for a laptop computer manufacturer over the first week of June. In addition, the same contact center has also been contracted to conduct a second inbound campaign that involves handling Web chats over the first week of June that originate from the manufacturer's website from potential customers who may be interested in purchasing a laptop. In this instance, a potential customer may be viewing products on the manufacturer's website and may select an option to speak with a representative. Finally, the contact center has been contracted to conduct a third inbound campaign over the first week of June that involves handling SMS text messages received by parties who are seeking additional information on the manufacturer's products. Thus, in this instance, the time periods over which the three campaigns are to take place overlap with each other and the three campaigns are to be conducted concurrently. Therefore, the contact center will be required to utilize its staff to conduct these three campaigns at the same time.

In this instance, agents at the contact center are generally able to handle different channels of communication at virtually the same time. Specifically, an agent at the contact center can handle an inbound call while also handling a Web chat or a SMS text message. In addition, the contact center operates daily from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with two shifts. The first shift runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (the morning shift) and the second shift runs from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (the afternoon shift). Accordingly, an administrator at the contact center creates the three campaigns via the campaign module and generates a forecast for each campaign using the forecast module.

FIG. 10 provides a table representation of the results for a day showing the forecasted communications for each campaign. The forecasted communications for the first campaign involving the inbound calls are shown in the first row 1010 titled “Calls,” for the second campaign involving the inbound Web chats are shown in the second row 1015 entitled “Chats,” and for the third campaign involving the inbound SMS text messages are shown in the third row 1020 entitled “SMS.” Further, the time intervals have been set for every fifteen minutes. Therefore, the table shows the forecasted number of communications received during each fifteen minute time interval for each campaign.

Accordingly, the table provided in FIG. 10 shows the first campaign involving the inbound calls is predicted to receive a high number of calls from the 3:15 p.m. time interval (310 calls 1025) to the 4:45 p.m. time interval (295 calls 1030) with a peak number of calls being received during the 4:00 p.m. time interval (334 calls 1035). The second campaign involving the inbound Web chats is predicted to receive a high number of chats from the 6:15 p.m. time interval (114 chats 1040) to the 7:45 p.m. time interval (120 chats 1045) with the a peak number of chats also being received during the 7:45 p.m. time interval. Finally, the third campaign involving the inbound SMS text messages is predicted to receive a high number of text messages from the 3:15 p.m. time interval (88 SMS 1050) to the 4:30 p.m. time interval (56 SMS 1055) with a peak number of messages being received during the 4:00 p.m. time interval (116 SMS 1060).

Turning now to FIG. 11, the table in this figure provides the number of agents needed to handle the forecasted number of communications received during each time interval for each campaign. In this instance since each time interval is fifteen minutes, the duration is 900 seconds. Looking at the 9:00 a.m. time interval for the first campaign involving the inbound calls, the campaign requires twenty-five agents 1110 to handle the eighty-eight inbound calls predicted by the forecast to be received during this time interval. For this particular embodiment, the forecast module calculates this number by using the formula shown in Equation 1:

$\begin{matrix} {{\#\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{agents}\mspace{14mu}{needed}} = \frac{\left( {\#\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{communications}*{AHT}} \right)}{ATAGH}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} 1} \end{matrix}$

wherein ATAGH=an amount of time an agent can handle communications during the interval

In this particular instance, the AHT for an inbound call is two-hundred and fifty-seven seconds. Therefore, the forecast module calculates (88 inbound calls*257 seconds)/900 seconds=25 agents needed during the 9:00 a.m. time interval for the first campaign involving the inbound calls (the number of agents is rounded to the nearest whole number).

In this particular example, the contact center provides agents with two fifteen minute breaks and a thirty minute lunch/dinner break during a shift. Depending on the circumstances, these breaks may be set up as parameters for the contact center or for the individual campaigns that the forecast module considers in determining the number of agents needed for each time interval. Specifically, during the morning shift that runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., the contact center provides each agent with a fifteen minute break during the hour from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., a lunch break during the hours from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., and another fifteen minute break during the hour from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Likewise, during the afternoon shift that runs from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., the contact center provides each agent with a fifteen minute break during the hour from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., a dinner break during the hours from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and another fifteen minute break during the hour from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Accordingly, during the hour from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., only seventy-five percent of the agents who are working are actively handling communications since twenty-five percent of the agents will be on break at any given time during this hour. Likewise, the same can be said for the hours from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. However, during the hours from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., the first and second shifts overlap each other. Therefore, during these hours, eighty-seven and a half percent of the agents who are working are actively handling communications since twelve and a half percent of the agents will be on break at any given time during these hours.

Thus, in this particular embodiment, the forecast module calculates the number of agents needed during the 10:00 a.m. time interval by the formula shown in Equation 2:

$\begin{matrix} {{\#\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{agents}\mspace{14mu}{needed}} = \frac{\left( {\#\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{communications}*{AHT}} \right)}{\left( {{ATAGH}*0.75} \right)}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} 2} \end{matrix}$

wherein ATAGH=an amount of time an agent can handle communications during the interval

Therefore, the forecast module calculates (103 inbound calls*257 seconds)/(900 seconds*0.75)=39 agents 1115 needed during the 10:00 a.m. time interval for the first campaign involving the inbound calls.

The forecast module calculates the agents needed for each time interval for both the second campaign involving the inbound Web chats and the third campaign involving the inbound SMS text messages in the same manner. However, the AHT for an inbound Web chat is five-hundred and sixty seconds and the AHT for an inbound SMS text message is one-hundred and twenty-one seconds. Therefore, the forecast module calculates (26 inbound chats*560 seconds)/900 seconds=16 agents 1120 needed for the second campaign and (16 inbound SMS messages*121 seconds)/900 seconds=2 agents 1125 needed for the third campaign during the 9:00 a.m. time interval. Likewise, the forecast module calculates (42 inbound chats*560 seconds)/(900 seconds*0.75)=35 agents 1130 needed for the second campaign and (14 inbound chats*121 seconds)/(900 seconds*0.75)=3 agents 1135 needed for the third campaign during the 10:00 a.m. time interval.

At this point, the administrator decides to generate a roster template for the three campaigns. Accordingly, the administrator invokes the roster template module and selects the three campaigns and sets a priority for the three campaigns. In this instance, the administrator indicates the first campaign involving the inbound calls has the highest priority, the second campaign involving the inbound Web chats has the next highest priority, and the third campaign involving the inbound SMS text messages has the lowest priority. Therefore, the roster template module initially generates a roster template based on the forecast for the first campaign that includes a morning shift and an afternoon shift for each day the campaign is to be run and identifies the number of agents to schedule to work during each shift.

Depending on the embodiment, the roster template module may utilize one or more methods and/or calculations to determine the initial number of agents to schedule to work based on the forecast. For instance, in this particular embodiment, the roster template module determines the number of agents to schedule for each shift based on the determined maximum number of agents needed for a time interval plus the determined minimum number of agents needed for a time interval divided by two for the time intervals that occur during the shift when agents from the other shift are not scheduled. Therefore, the initial number of agents to schedule for the morning shift is 80 1140+19 1145=99/2=50. While the initial number of agents to schedule for the afternoon shift is 88 1150+16 1155=104/2=52.

Turning to FIG. 12, a table is provided showing a surplus or deficiency of allocated resources for each time interval for the first campaign based on scheduling fifty agents for the morning shift and fifty-two agents for the afternoon shift. Accordingly, one-hundred and two agents are scheduled to work from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. since the two shifts overlap during this time. In this instance, deficiencies exists during the 12:00 p.m. (−17 1210), 12:30 p.m. (−30 1215), 12:45 p.m. (−21 1220), 4:00 p.m. (−7 1225), 4:15 p.m. (−2 1230), 5:00 p.m. (−15 1235), 5:15 p.m. (−8 1240), and 5:30 p.m. (−36 1245) time intervals because the number of agents scheduled to work do not meet the number of agents needed to handle the number of calls forecasted to be received during these time intervals. The deficiencies represent the number of agents understaffed for the particular time interval. For example, the deficiency of negative seventeen 1210 during the 12:00 p.m. time interval means that seventeen additional agents would need to be staffed to handle the number of inbound calls forecasted to be received during this time interval.

In this example, the contact center has established parameters that are used by the roster template module to determine whether or not to address a deficiency. The first parameter states that an occurrence in which any two consecutive time intervals having deficiencies with a sum greater than fifty should be addressed. This particular parameter has been put in place by the contact center to ensure that communications placed in a waiting queue are not held in the queue for an extended period of time before being connected with an agent. Looking at the deficiencies in FIG. 12, there is one occurrence in which the deficiencies in consecutive time intervals add to more than fifty, that being the deficiencies for the time intervals 12:30 p.m. (−30 1215) and 12:45 p.m. (−21 1220) add up to fifty-one.

The contact center has also defined another parameter that states that any deficiencies to be addressed based on the first parameter can be ignored if the following two time intervals have surpluses with a sum greater than fifty. The logic behind this parameter is that if a large number of communications must be placed in a waiting queue due to deficiencies and the following time intervals have a large surplus of agents, then the communications placed in the queue will still be handled in a timely manner without having to add agents. Accordingly, the roster template module determines the two time intervals (1:00 p.m. having a surplus of 33 1250 and 1:15 p.m. having a surplus of 41 1255) following the occurrence of deficiencies meeting the first parameter have a surplus of seventy-four agents and therefore the occurrence of deficiencies for the time intervals 12:30 p.m. and 12:45 p.m. does not need to be addressed.

In addition, the contact center has established a parameter that states an occurrence of any three consecutive time intervals with deficiencies should be addressed. In this instance, the 5:00 p.m. (−15 1235), 5:15 p.m. (−8 1240), and 5:30 p.m. (−36 1245) time intervals each have a deficiency. Therefore, the roster template module determines this occurrence of deficiencies should be addressed.

In this example, the contact center is able to schedule up to one-hundred and ten agents for any given day. Therefore, since the current roster template only has a total of one-hundred and two agents scheduled to work the two shifts, the roster template module can address the occurrence of deficiencies by simply adding eight more agents to the roster template for the afternoon shift. The results of making such an addition is shown in FIG. 13. Here, one can see that the deficiencies for these three time intervals have been decreased to the point that only the 5:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. time intervals continue to have deficiencies 1310, 1315. Therefore, the roster template adheres to the parameter concerning any three consecutive time intervals with deficiencies.

At this point, the roster template module determines the roster template meets all of the parameters defined for the contact center with respect to the first campaign involving the inbound calls received by technical support. Next, the roster template module determines whether the roster template meets the parameters with respect to the second campaign involving the Web chats. Turning to FIG. 14, a table is provided showing a surplus or deficiency for each time interval for the second campaign based on scheduling fifty agents for the morning shift and sixty agents for the afternoon shift. As one can see, three consecutive deficiencies 1410, 1415, 1420 occur for the 6:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m., and 6:45 p.m. time intervals. Therefore based on the previously defined rule regarding three consecutive deficiencies, the roster template module determines this occurrence of deficiencies should be addressed.

However, since the roster template now has a total of one-hundred and ten agents scheduled for the two shifts, the roster template module cannot address the occurrence of deficiencies by simply adding more agents to the roster template for the afternoon shift. Therefore, in this embodiment, the roster template module addresses the occurrence of deficiencies by moving agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift. Specifically, the roster template module needs to provide an additional three agents to the afternoon shift to lower the deficiencies enough so that three consecutive time intervals do not have deficiencies. Accordingly, the roster template lowers the number of agents scheduled for the morning shift from fifty agents to forth-seven agents and raises the number of agents scheduled for the afternoon shift from sixty agents to sixty-three agents. The results of making such a change is shown in FIGS. 15 and 16.

Firstly, FIG. 15 provides a table showing the surpluses and deficiencies created by moving three agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift with respect to the first campaign involving the inbound calls. As one can see, the surplus of three agents that was present for the 12:15 p.m. time interval when fifty agents were scheduled for the morning shift is now zero 1510 as a result of moving three agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift. However, the roster template still adheres to all of the parameters defined for the contact center with respect to the first campaign involving the inbound calls received by technical support.

In turn, FIG. 16 provides a table showing the surpluses and deficiencies created by moving three agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift with respect to the second campaign involving the Web chats to generate a roster template with forty-seven agents scheduled for the morning shift and sixty-three agents scheduled for the afternoon shift. Now the roster template adheres to all of the parameters defined by the contact center with respect to the second campaign involving the Web chats. As shown, the only deficiencies that exit are for the 6:15 p.m. time interval (−8 1610) and the 6:45 p.m. time interval (−10 1615). Therefore, the roster template does not create two consecutive time intervals whose deficiencies sum to greater than fifty or three consecutive time intervals with deficiencies.

Finally, the roster template module determines whether the roster template meets the parameters with respect to the third campaign involving the SMS text messages. Turning to FIG. 17, one can see that the roster template having forty-seven agents scheduled to work the morning shift and sixty-three agents scheduled to work the afternoon shift results in an occurrence of five (more than three) consecutive time intervals (−20 1710, −13 1715, −22 1720, −15 1725, −1 1730) having deficiencies. However, in this instance, the roster template module cannot simply move agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift without creating an occurrence of three consecutive time intervals having deficiencies with respect to the first campaign involving the inbound calls to technical support. Therefore, depending on the embodiment, the roster template module may be configured to address this occurrence of five consecutive time intervals of deficiencies in different ways. For instance, in one embodiment, the roster template module may bring this occurrence up to the administrator so that the administrator may determine how best to handle the occurrence. While in another embodiment, the roster template module may ignore the occurrence since the first campaign involving the inbound calls has a higher priority than the third campaign involving the SMS text messages. Finally, in another embodiment, the roster template module may be configured to simply ignore (not apply) the parameter with respect to three consecutive time intervals having deficiencies for the third campaign since the contact center can defer responding to these text messages to a later time and therefore is not as concerned about having these SMS text messages sitting in a waiting queue for an extended period of time. Therefore, it is possible to define different rules or parameters with respect to handling deficiencies for different channels of communication and/or campaigns and thus providing different criteria for addressing deficiencies of one channel of communication and/or campaign when compared to another.

At this point, the same process is carried out for each of the remaining days the three campaigns are to be conducted. Once the roster template module has completed generating the roster template for the three campaigns and the administrator finds the roster template acceptable, the administrator may then use the schedule module to apply the roster template and generate a schedule to conduct the three campaigns. Generally speaking, the schedule module uses the roster template and applies the contact center's staff in accordance with the template to schedule staff members to work the morning and afternoon shifts for the three campaigns.

Second Example to Demonstrate Functionality of Various Embodiments

A second example is now provided to further help demonstrate the functionality of various embodiments of the invention. Again, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that this example is provided for demonstration purposes only and should not be construed to limit the scope of various embodiments of the invention.

Again in this example, the contact center has been contracted to conduct a first inbound campaign that involves handling technical support calls for a laptop computer manufacturer, a second inbound campaign that involves handling Web chats that originate from the manufacturer's website from potential customers who may be interested in purchasing a laptop, and a third inbound campaign that involves handling SMS text messages received by parties who are seeking additional information on the manufacturer's products, all over the first week of June. However, in this example, an agent at the contact center can handle an inbound call while also handling two Web chats or three SMS text messages. Again, the contact center operates daily from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with two shifts. The first shift runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (the morning shift) and the second shift runs from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (the afternoon shift) and the same breaks are provided as were provided in the first example. Accordingly, an administrator at the contact center creates the three campaigns via the campaign module and generates a forecast for each campaign using the forecast module.

FIG. 18 provides a table representation of the results for a day showing the forecasted communications for each campaign. The forecasted communications for the first campaign involving the inbound calls are shown in the first row 1810 titled “Calls,” for the second campaign involving the inbound Web chats are shown in the second row 1815 entitled “Chats,” and for the third campaign involving the inbound SMS text messages are shown in the third row 1820 entitled “SMS.” Similar to the first example, the time intervals have been set for every fifteen minutes.

Turning now to FIG. 19, the table in this figure provides the number of agents needed to handle the forecasted number of communications received during each time interval for each campaign. Again, the duration is nine-hundred seconds for each time interval since a time interval is fifteen minutes and the AHT for an inbound call is two-hundred and fifty-seven second for the first campaign involving the inbound calls. Therefore, for the 9:00 a.m. time interval, the first campaign requires thirty-eight agents 1910 to handle the one-hundred and thirty-two inbound calls predicted by the forecast to be received during this time interval.

As mentioned above, agents at the contact center can generally handle two Web chats at virtually the same time for the second campaign. That is to say, an agent at the contact center can fulfill multiple requirements for a single channel of communication at virtually the same time. In this example, such a capability is in addition to being able to handle a second, different channel of communication at virtually the same time. Therefore, the forecast module calculates the number of agents required during the 9:00 a.m. time interval by using the formula shown in Equation 3:

$\begin{matrix} {{\#\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{agents}\mspace{14mu}{needed}} = \frac{\left( {\#\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{communications}*{AHT}} \right)}{\left( {2*{ATAGH}} \right)}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} 3} \end{matrix}$

wherein ATAGH=an amount of time an agent can handle communications during the interval

In this instance, the ATAGH is multiple by two to take into consideration an agent's ability to fulfill multiple requirements for a single channel of communication by being able to handle two Web chats at virtually the same time. Accordingly, the AHT for an inbound Web chat is five-hundred and sixty seconds and the forecast module calculates (57 inbound Web chats*560 seconds)/(2*900 seconds)=18 agents 1915 are needed during the 9:00 a.m. time interval for the second campaign involving the inbound Web chats (the number of agents is rounded to the nearest whole number).

A similar type of calculation is used with respect to the third campaign involving the SMS text messages since an agent can handle three SMS text messages at virtually the same time. The AHT for an inbound SMS text message is one-hundred and twenty-one seconds and the forecast module calculates (48 inbound SMS text messages*121 seconds)/(3*900 seconds)=2 agents 1920 are needed during the 9:00 a.m. time interval for the third campaign involving the inbound SMS text messages.

At this point, the administrator invokes the roster template module and selects the three campaigns and sets a priority for the three campaigns. Like in the first example, the administrator indicates the first campaign involving the inbound calls has the highest priority, the second campaign involving the inbound Web chats has the next highest priority, and the third campaign involving the inbound SMS text messages has the lowest priority. Accordingly, the roster template module initially generates a roster template based on the forecast for the first campaign that includes a morning shift and an afternoon shift for each day the campaign is to be run and identifies the number of agents to schedule to work during each shift. Therefore, in this example, the roster template module determines the initial number of agents to schedule for the morning shift based on the average of the top three forecasted maximum number of agents needed for a time interval divided by two. Accordingly, the morning shift is 164 1925+135 1930+144 1935=443/3=148/2=74 agents. While the roster template module determines the initial number of agents to schedule for the afternoon shift based on the highest number of agents required for an interval in which agents from the morning shift are not scheduled plus the lowest number of agents required for an interval in which agents from the morning shift are not scheduled divided by two. Therefore, in the example, the initial number of agents to schedule for the afternoon shift is 126 1940+30 1945=156/2=78 agents.

Turning now to FIG. 20, a table is provided showing a surplus or deficiency of allocated resources for each time interval for the first campaign based on scheduling seventy-four agents for the morning shift and seventy-eight agents for the afternoon shift. As you may recall from the first example, the contact center has established a parameter that states an occurrence of any three consecutive time intervals with deficiencies should be addressed. In this instance, the 5:00 p.m. (−23 2010), 5:15 p.m. (−12 2015), and 5:30 p.m. (−48 2020) time intervals each have a deficiency. Therefore, the roster template module determines this occurrence of deficiencies should be addressed.

For this particular example, the contact center is able to schedule up to one-hundred and sixty agents for any given day. Therefore, since the current roster template only has a total of one-hundred and fifty-two agents scheduled to work the two shifts, the roster template module can partially address the occurrence of deficiencies by adding eight more agents to the roster template for the afternoon shift. The results of making such an addition is shown in FIG. 21. Here, one can see that the deficiencies 2110, 2115, 2120 for the three time intervals have decreased with the addition of the eight agents but not to the point where the roster template adheres to the parameter concerning having three consecutive time intervals with deficiencies.

Therefore, the roster template module needs to make a further adjustment to the template to address the three consecutive intervals with deficiencies and since a total of one-hundred and sixty agents are now scheduled for the morning and afternoon shifts, the roster template module cannot address the occurrence of deficiencies by simply adding more agents to the roster template for the afternoon shift. Thus, in this particular embodiment, the roster template module addresses the occurrence of deficiencies by moving agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift. Specifically, the roster template module moves four agents scheduled for the morning shift to the afternoon shift. The result of moving the four agents is shown in FIG. 22. As one can see, the three time intervals no longer comprise three consecutive time intervals with deficiencies 2210, 2215, 2220 and the roster template now adheres to the parameter.

At this point, the roster template module determines whether the roster template meets the parameters with respect to the second campaign involving the Web chats. Turning now to FIG. 23, a table is provided showing a surplus or deficiency for each time interval for the second campaign based on scheduling seventy agents for the morning shift and ninety agents for the afternoon shift. As one can see, four consecutive deficiencies 2310, 2315, 2320, 2325 occur for the 7:00 p.m., 7:15 p.m., 7:30 p.m., and 7:45 p.m. time intervals. Therefore based on the previously defined rule regarding three consecutive deficiencies, the roster template module determines this occurrence of deficiencies should be addressed.

Again, since the roster template now has a total of one-hundred and sixty agents scheduled for the two shifts, the roster template module needs to address the occurrence of deficiencies by moving agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift. In this instance, the roster template module moves nine agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift to lower the deficiencies enough so that three consecutive time intervals do not have deficiencies. Thus, the roster template lowers the number of agents scheduled for the morning shift from seventy agents to sixty-one agents and raises the number of agents scheduled for the afternoon shift from ninety agents to ninety-nine agents. The result of making such a change is shown in FIGS. 24 and 25.

Firstly, FIG. 24 provides a table showing the deficiencies and surpluses created by moving nine agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift with respect to the second campaign involving the inbound Web chats. As one can see, the deficiency for the 7:30 p.m. time interval is now zero 2410 and the roster template no longer has three consecutive intervals with deficiencies. Furthermore, FIG. 25 provides a table showing the deficiencies and surpluses created by moving the nine agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift with respect to the first campaign involving the inbound calls. Again, moving nine agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift does not cause the template to not adhere to any of the parameters defined by the contact center with respect to the first campaign.

Finally, the roster template module determines whether the roster template meets the parameters with respect to the third campaign involving the SMS text messages. Turning to FIG. 26, one can see that the roster template having sixty-one agents scheduled to work the morning shift and ninety-nine agents scheduled to work the afternoon shift results in one occurrence of three consecutive time intervals having deficiencies (−11 2610, −2 2615, −16 2620) and one occurrence of four consecutive time intervals having deficiencies (−32 2625, −22 2630, −1 2635, −17 2640). Furthermore, as you may recall from the first example, the contact center has also established a parameter that states two consecutive occurrences of time intervals with a combined deficiency greater than fifty should be addressed. Therefore, the roster template includes such a deficiency for the 7:00 p.m. time interval (−32 2625) and the 7:15 p.m. time interval (−22 2630).

In this instance, the roster template module is unable to move agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift and vice versa to address the three occurrences without causing at least one of the occurrences to become worse since one of the occurrences takes place during the morning shift and the other two occurrences takes place during the afternoon shift. As with the first example, the roster template module may be configured in particular embodiments to simply ignore the two parameters and three occurrences since the contact center can defer responding to these text messages to a later time. However, in this instance, the roster template is configured to attempt to minimize the effects of the occurrences if possible. Therefore, the roster template moves two additional agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift to attempt to address the two occurrences that take place during the afternoon shift although making such a move will result in the occurrence during the morning shift becoming worse.

Accordingly, FIG. 27 provides a table showing the result of moving two additional agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift so that the morning shift now has fifty-nine agents scheduled and the afternoon shift now has one-hundred and one agents scheduled. As one can see, the one occurrence of three consecutive time intervals having deficiencies 2710, 2715, 2720 that takes place during the morning shift remains and the deficiencies themselves have slightly increased due to moving two additional agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift. However, the occurrence of three consecutive time intervals having deficiencies and the occurrence of two consecutive time intervals having a combined deficiency greater than fifty have been addressed by the move. Specifically, the 9:30 p.m. time interval now has a surplus of one agent 2725 and the combined deficiency of the 7:00 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. time intervals (−30 2730, −20 2735) now totals fifty.

As for the first campaign involving the inbound calls and the second campaign involving the inbound Web chats, moving two additional agents from the morning shift to the afternoon shift still results in a roster template that adheres to the parameters set by the contact center as shown in FIGS. 28 and 29. Therefore, in this example, the roster template module determines the optimal roster template that meets the requirements of the three campaigns and adheres as closely as possible to the parameters set by the contact center is a roster template having fifty-nine agents scheduled for the morning shift and one-hundred and one agents scheduled for the afternoon shift for the given day. At this point, the same process is carried out for each of the remaining days to be conducted for the three campaigns. Once the roster template module has completed generating the roster template for the three campaigns and the administrator finds the roster template acceptable, the administrator may then use the schedule module to apply the roster template and generate a schedule to conduct the three campaigns. Generally speaking, the schedule module uses the roster template and applies the contact center's staff in accordance with the template to schedule staff members to work the morning and afternoon shifts for the three campaigns.

Campaign Monitoring Module

Once a schedule has been generated, the contact center generally conducts the multiple campaigns involving different channels of communication according to the schedule. That is to say, the contact center has the agents who are scheduled to work for each particular workday according to the schedule work their corresponding turns on their scheduled workdays and handle the communications for the multiple campaigns. FIG. 30 provides additional details regarding a process flow for monitoring multiple campaigns that are being conducted at virtually the same time or at times that overlap on a given workday that make use of different channels of communication. In particular, FIG. 30 is a flow diagram showing a campaign monitoring module for performing such functionality according to one embodiment of the invention. For example, the flow diagram shown in FIG. 30 may correspond to operations carried out by a processor in a system, such as the CM 150 for example, as it executes the campaign monitoring module stored in the system's volatile and/or nonvolatile memory. In general, the campaign monitoring module invokes other modules to provide functionality in relation to monitoring the multiple campaigns as they are being conducted at the contact center for the given day. Further details with respect to two of the modules are provided in the discussion below and FIGS. 31-32.

Turning now to FIG. 30, the process begins with the campaign monitoring module retrieving the schedule for the workday in Operation 3010. Accordingly, the schedule may be stored in some type of media from which the campaign monitoring module reads the schedule and identifies the campaigns involved from the schedule in Operation 3015. Thus, in particular embodiments, the schedule may identify information in addition to shifts and agents scheduled to work the shifts such as, for example, the campaigns being conducted during the shifts and/or the contact devices 131 involved in handling communications for the campaigns. Therefore, in Operation 3020, the campaign monitoring module identifies the contact devices 131 involved in conducting the campaigns.

At this point, the campaign monitoring module invokes the agent monitoring module for monitoring the status of agents working during the workday, shown as Operation 3025. As explained in further detail below, the agent monitoring module identifies the agents scheduled to work during the workday and verifies the agents are logged in at the appropriate times and available to handle communications for the campaigns being conducted. Likewise, the campaign monitoring module invokes the communication monitoring module for determining what agents to route communications to for the campaigns, shown as Operation 3030. As explained in further detail below, the communication monitoring module receives a message about a particular communication sent from or received by the contact center and determines what agent should handle the communication. It should be noted that depending on the embodiment, the campaign monitoring module may provide information to the agent monitoring module and/or the communication monitoring module. For instance, in particular embodiments, the campaign monitoring module provides the modules with information from the schedule for the multiple campaigns being conducted. In turn, this information can be used, for instance, by the agent monitoring module to determine which agents should be logged in and available according to the schedule. Once the campaign monitoring module has invoked the agent monitoring and communication monitoring modules, the process ends for the particular embodiment shown in FIG. 30.

Agent Monitoring Module

Turning now to FIG. 31, additional details are provided regarding a process flow for identifying and verifying what agents are logged in and available for handling communications for the multiple campaigns. In particular, FIG. 31 is a flow diagram showing an agent monitoring module for performing such functionality according to one embodiment of the invention. As mentioned above, in various embodiments, the agent monitoring module may be invoked by the campaign monitoring module described above. However, it should be understood that in other embodiments, the agent monitoring module may be a stand-alone computer program module. Thus, the flow diagram shown in FIG. 31 may correspond to operations carried out by a processor in a system, such as the CM 150 for example, as it executes the agent monitoring module stored in the system's volatile and/or nonvolatile memory.

Therefore, beginning with Operation 3110, the agent monitoring module identifies the agents from the schedule that should be working for the current turn. Depending on the embodiment, the agent monitoring module may obtain information on what agents are scheduled to be working for the current turn from different sources such as storage media or from some other module such as the campaign monitoring module for example. At this point, the agent monitoring module reads the skills associated with each agent scheduled to work the turn in Operation 3115. Again, depending on the embodiment, information on the skills may be obtained from different sources. For example, in one embodiment, the agent monitoring module may be configured to access such information from a data store 175 within the contact center architecture 100. Further, depending on the embodiment, the information on the skills may include various types of information such as, for example, the subject matters an agent is trained to handle, the languages the agent can speak and/or write, and the combinations of channels the agent can handle at virtually the same time. Once the agent monitoring module reads these skills, the module populates a skills table with the skills in Operation 3120.

Depending on the embodiment, the skills table may be one of many different types of data structures to store information such as, for example, a file, a database, a table in a database, etc. Such information is stored in the skills table for the embodiment of the agent monitoring module shown in FIG. 31 to help centralize skills information for the agents scheduled to work the current turn. Centralization of such information helps in providing faster access to this information when needed. For example, as is explained in further detail below, the communication monitoring module accesses this information in various embodiments when determining which agent should handle a particular communication. By having the skills information centralized for the agents scheduled to being working, the communication monitoring module can access the appropriate skills information for a particular agent more quickly than had the communication monitoring module had to access this information from a location (e.g., one or more data structures) containing skills information for all of the agents working for the contact center, regardless of whether the agents are currently working or not. However with that said, in other embodiments, centralization of the skill information is not necessarily required for faster processing and the agent monitoring module may not perform this operation.

At this point, the agent monitoring module verifies which agents are logged in and currently available to handle communications for the multiple campaigns in Operation 3125. In particular embodiments, the agent monitoring module carries out this operation by comparing the agents scheduled to work the current turn with the agents that are actively logged in and available to handle communications. For instance, in one embodiment, the agent monitoring module may gather information on which agents are actively logged in and available from the various contact devices 131 being used to conduct the campaigns. Accordingly, the agent monitoring module receives this information and compares the information with the scheduled information to determine whether the agents scheduled to work the current turn are in fact actively logged in and available. That is to say, the agent monitoring module determines whether any discrepancies exits with respect to the agents scheduled to work the current turn and the agents actively logged in and available in Operation 3130.

If any discrepancies exist, the agent monitoring module reports such discrepancies in Operation 3135. For instance, in one embodiment, the agent monitoring module reports such discrepancies to a contact center administrator in some form such as, for example, an email or IM message. At this point, the agent monitoring module determines whether a turn change has occurred for the workday in Operation 3140. A turn change is typically when either a current turn ends or a new turn begins. Accordingly, the agents who are actively logged in and available typically change as a result of such a change. That is to say, agents who are currently working may be ending their turn and quitting work. While other agents who are scheduled to work may be starting their turn and beginning work. If so, then the agent monitoring module returns to operation 3110 and identifies the agents who are scheduled to work the current turn.

With that said, it should be understood that just because a new turn is beginning does not necessarily mean a current turn is ending and vice versa. As you may recall, in the example provided above, the contact center operated a morning turn that ran from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and an afternoon turn that ran from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. for a workday. Accordingly, in this instance, portions of the two turns overlapped each other. Therefore, the operation involving the agent monitoring module identifying the agents from the schedule for the current turn may involve identifying agents for multiple turns.

Finally, if a turn change has not occurred, then the agent monitoring module determines whether the workday has ended in Operation 3145. Again, the agent monitoring module makes such a determination based on the schedule information in various embodiments. If the workday has ended, then the process ends for the agent monitoring module. However, if the workday has not ended, then the agent monitoring module returns to Operation 3125 and verifies what agents are currently logged in and available.

Communication Monitoring Module

Turning now to FIG. 32, additional details are provided regarding a process flow for selecting a particular agent for handling a communication for one of the multiple campaigns. In particular, FIG. 32 is a flow diagram showing a communication monitoring module for performing such functionality according to one embodiment of the invention. As mentioned above, in various embodiments, the communication monitoring module may be invoked by the campaign monitoring module described above. In addition, depending on the embodiment, the communication monitoring module may be provided with information from the campaign monitoring module such as, for example, what campaigns are currently being conducted, the contact devices 131 handling communications for these campaigns, and/or the channels of communication being used for these campaigns. However, it should be understood that in other embodiments, the communication monitoring module may be a stand-alone computer program module. Thus, the flow diagram shown in FIG. 32 may correspond to operations carried out by a processor in a system, such as the CM 150 for example, as it executes the communication monitoring module stored in the system's volatile and/or nonvolatile memory.

Therefore, beginning with Operation 3210, the communication monitoring module receives a message from a contact device 131 about a communication received or made by the contact center. For instance, returning to the example in which the contact center is conducting three different campaigns at virtually the same time that includes a first campaign involving inbound calls, a second campaign involving inbound Web chats, and a third campaign involving inbound SMS text messages, the message identifies a communication received for one of these campaigns. In turn, the communication monitoring module checks the availability of various agents in Operation 3215. For instance, in one embodiment, the communication monitoring module may query the contact device 131 that sent the message to inquire about the current agents assigned to handle communications for the contact device 131. While in other embodiments, the communication monitoring module may maintain a current status for each agent. Accordingly, the contact device 131 provides information on what agents are currently available to the communication monitoring module.

At this point, the communication monitoring module determines whether any agents are available in Operation 3220. If not, then the communication monitoring module sends the contact device 131 a message on how to handle the communication in Operation 3245. For instance, the communication monitoring module may inform the contact device 131 to place the communication in a hold queue or to maintain the communication in a hold queue. While in another instance, the communication monitoring module may inform the contact device 131 to forward the communication to a component that provides a form of automated service for the communication. Those of ordinary skill in the art can envision several options the communication monitoring module may provide to the contact device 131 in light of this disclosure.

If, however, at least one agent is available, the communication monitoring module selects a candidate agent in Operation 3225. Depending on the embodiment, the communication monitoring module may select the candidate agent based on different criteria. For instance, in one embodiment, the communication monitoring module may select the candidate agent based on which agent has been available for the longest amount of time. While in another embodiment, the communication monitoring module may select the candidate agent based on the agent being in some group of agents that has a particular skill relative to the communication such as being able to speak and/or write in Spanish. While yet in another embodiment, the communication monitoring module may select the candidate agent based on an agent's average handle time (“AHT”) with respect to the channel of communication being used for the communication involved in the received message. Again, those of ordinary skill in the art can envision several different criteria the communication monitoring module may use to select a candidate agent in light of this disclosure.

Continuing on, the communication monitoring module retrieves skills for the selected agent from the skills table populated by the agent monitoring module in Operation 3230. Specifically, in particular embodiments, the communication monitoring module retrieves skills on what specific channels of communication the selected agent can handle and what combinations of channels of communication the selected agent can handle. For instance, returning to the example, the three campaigns being conducted at virtually the same time involving inbound calls, inbound Web chats, and inbound SMS text messages, the message received by the communication monitoring module may involve a communication for any one of these three channels of communication. Accordingly, the communication monitoring module retrieves the channels of communication and the combination of these channels the selected agent can handle. For example, the selected agent may be able to handle an inbound call while also handling an inbound Web chat or an inbound SMS text message. In addition, the selected agent may be able to handle two inbound Web chats, two inbound SMS text messages, or an inbound Web chat and an inbound SMS text message as the same time.

At this point, the communication monitoring module checks the current status of the selected agent in Operation 3235. Thus, in particular embodiments, the communication monitoring module queries each of the contact devices 131 to inquire the current status of the selected agent with respect to the particular contact device. For instance, returning to the example, the communication monitoring module queries the contact device 131 handling the inbound calls for the first campaign, the contact device 131 handling the inbound Web chats for the second campaign, and the contact device 131 handling the inbound SMS text messages for the third campaign. Accordingly, the contact device 131 handling the inbound calls for the first campaign replies that the selected agent is currently handling an inbound call for the first campaign. The contact device 131 handling the inbound Web chats for the second campaign replies that the selected agent is currently handling an inbound Web chats for the second campaign. Finally, the contact device 131 handling the inbound SMS text messages for the third campaign replies that the selected agent is currently available and not handling any SMS text messages for the third campaign.

Therefore, the communication monitoring module determines whether the agent can handle the communication associated with the received message in Operation 3240. Thus in the example, the communication associated with the received message is an inbound Web chat for the second campaign and the selected agent is currently handling an inbound call for the first campaign and an inbound Web chat for the second campaign. In this instance, the selected agent can handle an inbound call and either an inbound Web chat or inbound SMS text message at the same time. Therefore, the communication monitoring module determines the agent cannot handle the communication associated with the received message. As a result, the communication monitoring module returns to Operation 3220 to determine whether another agent is available. If so, then the communication monitoring module repeats Operations 3230 and 3235 for this selected agent.

This time the selected agent has the same skills as the previously selected agent and is currently only handling an inbound Web chat for the second campaign. Therefore, the communication monitoring module determines in Operation 3240 that the agent can handle the communication (e.g., the inbound Web chat) associated with the received message since the selected agent is able to handle two inbound Web chats at the same time. Accordingly, the communication monitoring module sends a message to the contact device 131 advising the contact device 131 to forward the inbound Web chat to the selected agent to handle in Operation 3245. At this point the process ends.

Exemplary Processing Device Architecture

As discussed in conjunction with FIG. 1, the contact center architecture 100 may comprise various components that comprise a processing system. FIG. 33 is an exemplary schematic diagram of a processing system 3300 that may be used in an embodiment of the contact center architecture 100 to practice the technologies disclosed herein such as, for example, the contact device(s) 131, IVR 130, ITR 140, CM 150, WFM 155, or other component previously described. In general, the term “processing system” may be exemplified by, for example, but without limitation: a personal computer, server, desktop computer, tablets, smart phones, notebooks, laptops, distributed systems, servers, blades, gateways, switches, and the like, as well as any combination of devices or entities adapted to perform the functions described herein.

As shown in FIG. 33, the processing system 3300 may include one or more processors 3301 that may communicate with other elements within the processing system 3300 via a bus 3305. The processor 2101 may be implemented as one or more complex programmable logic devices (“CPLD”), microprocessors, multi-core processors, digital signal processors (“DSP”), system-on-a-chip (“SOC”), co-processing entities, application-specific integrated circuits (“ASIC”), field programmable gate arrays (“FPGA”), programmable logic arrays (“PLA”), hardware accelerators, other circuitry, or the like.

In one embodiment, the processing system 3300 may also include one or more communications interfaces 3302 for communicating data via the local network with various external devices, such as other components of FIG. 1. In other embodiments, communication may be via wired, optical, or wireless networks (or a combination thereof). The communication may use a variety of data transmission protocols, such as fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), Ethernet, asynchronous transfer mode (“ATM”), or frame relay.

The input/output controller 3303 may also communicate with one or more input devices or peripherals using an interface 3304, such as, but not limited to: a keyboard, a mouse, a touch screen/display input, microphone, pointing device, etc. The input/output controller 3303 may also communicate with output devices or peripherals, such as displays, printers, speakers, headsets, banner displays, etc.

The processor 3301 may be configured to execute instructions stored in volatile memory 3306, non-volatile memory 3307, or other forms of computer-readable storage media accessible to the processor 3301. The volatile memory 3306 may comprise various types of memory technologies, including, but not limited to: random access memory (“RAM”), dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”), static random access memory (“SRAM”), and other forms well known to those skilled in the art. The non-volatile memory 3307 may comprise various technologies, including, but not limited to: storage media such as hard disks, floppy disks, read only memory (“ROM”), programmable read only memory (“PROM”), electrically erasable read only memory (“EPROM”), flash memory, and other forms well known to those skilled in the art.

The non-volatile memory 3307 may store program code and data, which also may be loaded into the volatile memory 3306 at execution time. Specifically, the non-volatile memory 1807 may store one or more program modules 3309, such as those described above containing instructions for performing the processes and/or functions associated with the technologies disclosed herein, and/or operating system code 3308. In addition, these program modules 3309 may also access, generate, or store data 3310, such as the aforementioned records and data, in the non-volatile memory 3307, as well as in the volatile memory 3306. The volatile memory 3306 and/or non-volatile memory 3307 may be used to store other information including, but not limited to: records, applications, programs, scripts, source code, object code, byte code, compiled code, interpreted code, machine code, executable instructions, or the like. These may be executed or processed by, for example, the processor 3301 and/or may form a part of, or may interact with, the program modules 3309.

The technologies described herein may be implemented in various ways, including as computer program products comprising memory storing instructions causing a processor to perform the operations associated with the above technologies. The computer program product may comprise a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing applications, programs, program modules, scripts, source code, program code, object code, byte code, compiled code, interpreted code, machine code, executable instructions, and/or the like (also referred to herein as executable instructions, instructions for execution, program code, and/or similar terms). Such non-transitory computer readable storage media include all the above identified media (including volatile and non-volatile media), but does not include a transitory, propagating signal. Non-volatile computer readable storage medium may specifically comprise: a floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, compact disc read only memory (“CD-ROM”), compact disc compact disc-rewritable (“CD-RW”), digital versatile disc (“DVD”), Blu-ray™ disc (“BD”), any other non-transitory optical medium, and/or the like. Non-volatile computer-readable storage medium may also comprise read-only memory (“ROM”), programmable read-only memory (“PROM”), erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), flash memory, and/or other technologies known to those skilled in the art.

CONCLUSION

Many modifications and other embodiments of the concepts and technologies set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that embodiments other than the embodiments disclosed herein are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms may be employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for generating an applicable roster template for use in scheduling agent resources for a contact center to conduct a first campaign and a second campaign, the method comprising the steps of: generating by a workforce management system a first forecast based on a first set of campaign parameters and a first historical dataset, in which the first set of campaign parameters comprises (1) a first channel of communication to be used in conducting the first campaign and (2) a first time period during which the first campaign is to be conducted, the first historical dataset comprises historical data on handling communications involving the first channel of communication, and the first forecast identifies a first number of agent resources needed to handle the first campaign; generating by the workforce management system a second forecast based on a second set of campaign parameters and a second historical dataset, in which the second set of campaign parameters comprises (1) a second channel of communication to be used in conducting the second campaign, the second channel of communication being different than the first channel of communication, and (2) a second time period during which the second campaign is to be conducted, in which at least a corresponding portion of each of the second time period and the first time period overlap each other, the second historical dataset comprises historical data on handling communications involving the second channel of communication, and the second forecast identifies a second number of agent resources needed to handle the second campaign; generating the applicable roster template by the workforce management system, the applicable roster template comprising one or more shifts identifying agent resources to schedule based on the first number of agent resources identified in the first forecast needed to handle the first campaign; evaluating the applicable roster template by the workforce management system to identify a first deficiency in which the agent resources to schedule identified in the applicable roster template do not meet the second number of agent resources needed to handle the second campaign; determining by the workforce management system whether the first deficiency causes one or more parameters not to be met, the one or more parameters defining relationships between agent resources to schedule identified in a roster template and a number of agent resources needed to handle a campaign identified in a forecast; and based on the first deficiency causing at least one of the one or more parameters not to be met, revising the one or more shifts identifying the agent resources to schedule for the applicable roster template by the workforce management system to address the first deficiency so that a second deficiency in which the agent resources to schedule based on the revised one or more shifts do not meet at least one of the first number of agent resources needed to handle the first campaign and the second number of agent resources needed to handle the second campaign is not created that causes at least one of the one or more parameters not to be met.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters comprises at least one of (1) having a deficiency greater than a threshold with respect to the agent resources to schedule identified in the roster template for a particular shift and a corresponding portion of the number of agent resources needed to hand the campaign identified in the forecast and (2) having a deficiency exist over a time interval identified in the forecast with respect to the agent resources to schedule identified in the roster template and a corresponding portion of the number of agents resources needed to hand the campaign identified in the forecast for the time interval.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating the applicable roster template is carried out with respect to the first number of agent resources identified in the first forecast needed to handle the first campaign in response to the first campaign having priority over the second campaign.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of generating a schedule by the workforce management system based on the applicable roster template, the schedule identifying actual agent resources scheduled to work during the first and second time periods for the first and second campaigns.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the actual agent resources are scheduled based on being able to handle communications involving both the first channel of communication and the second channel of communication.
 6. The method of claim 5 further comprising the steps of: receiving a message from a contact device about a communication received or made by the contact center for the first or second campaign by a campaign monitoring system; selecting a particular agent from agent resources currently logged in to handle communications for the first and second campaigns by the campaign monitoring system; determining whether the particular agent can handle the communication based on capabilities of the particular agent with respect to handling communications involving the first channel of communication and the second channel of communication by the campaign monitoring system; and sending a message to the contact device advising the contact device to transfer the communication to the particular agent based on determining the particular agent can handle the communication.
 7. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for generating an applicable roster template for use in scheduling agent resources for a contact center to conduct a first campaign and a second campaign that when executed cause at least one computer processor to: generate a first forecast based on a first set of campaign parameters and a first historical dataset, in which the first set of campaign parameters comprises (1) a first channel of communication to be used in conducting the first campaign and (2) a first time period during which the first campaign is to be conducted, the first historical dataset comprises historical data on handling communications involving the first channel of communication, and the first forecast identifies a first number of agent resources needed to handle the first campaign; generate a second forecast based on a second set of campaign parameters and a second historical dataset, in which the second set of campaign parameters comprises (1) a second channel of communication to be used in conducting the second campaign, the second channel of communication being different than the first channel of communication, and (2) a second time period during which the second campaign is to be conducted, in which at least a corresponding portion of each of the second time period and the first time period overlap each other, the second historical dataset comprises historical data on handling communications involving the second channel of communication, and the second forecast identifies a second number of agent resources needed to handle the second campaign; generate the applicable roster template comprising one or more shifts identifying agent resources to schedule based on the first number of agent resources identified in the first forecast needed to handle the first campaign; evaluate the applicable roster template to identify a first deficiency in which the agent resources to schedule identified in the applicable roster template do not meet the second number of agent resources needed to handle the second campaign; determine whether the first deficiency causes one or more parameters not to be met, the one or more parameters defining relationships between agent resources to schedule identified in a roster template and a number of agent resources needed to handle a campaign identified in a forecast; and based on the first deficiency causing at least one of the one or more parameters not to be met, revise the one or more shifts identifying the agent resources to schedule for the applicable roster template to address the first deficiency so that a second deficiency in which the agent resources to schedule based on the revised one or more shifts do not meet at least one of the first number of agent resources needed to handle the first campaign and the second number of agent resources needed to handle the second campaign is not created that causes at least one of the one or more parameters not to be met.
 8. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the one or more parameters comprises at least one of (1) having a deficiency greater than a threshold with respect to the agent resources to schedule identified in the roster template for a particular shift and a corresponding portion of the number of agent resources needed to hand the campaign identified in the forecast and (2) having a deficiency exist over a time interval identified in the forecast with respect to the agent resources to schedule identified in the roster template and a corresponding portion of the number of agents resources needed to hand the campaign identified in the forecast for the time interval.
 9. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the computer-executable instructions when executed cause the at least one computer processor to generate the applicable roster template with respect to the first number of agent resources needed to handle the first number of communications based on the first campaign having priority over the second campaign.
 10. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the computer-executable instructions when executed further cause the at least one computer processor to generate a schedule based on the applicable roster template, the schedule identifying actual agent resources scheduled to work during the first and second time periods for the first and second campaigns.
 11. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the actual agent resources are scheduled based on being able to handle communications involving both the first channel of communication and the second channel of communication.
 12. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer-executable instructions when executed further cause the at least one computer processor to: receive a message from a contact device about a communication received or made by the contact center for the first or second campaign; select a particular agent from agent resources currently logged in to handle communications for the first and second campaigns; determine whether the particular agent can handle the communication based on capabilities of the particular agent with respect to handling communications involving the first channel of communication and the second channel of communication; and send a message to the contact device advising the contact device to transfer the communication to the particular agent based on determining the available agent can handle the communication.
 13. A system for generating a roster template for use in scheduling agent resources for a contact center to conduct a first campaign and a second campaign comprising: a workforce management component configured to: generate a first forecast based on a first set of campaign parameters and a first historical dataset, in which the first set of campaign parameters comprises (1) a first channel of communication to be used in conducting the first campaign and (2) a first time period during which the first campaign is to be conducted, the first historical dataset comprises historical data on handling communications involving the first channel of communication, and the first forecast identifies a first number of agent resources needed to handle the first campaign; generate a second forecast based on a second set of campaign parameters and a second historical dataset, in which the second set of campaign parameters comprises (1) a second channel of communication to be used in conducting the second campaign, the second channel of communication being different than the first channel of communication, and (2) a second time period during which the second campaign is to be conducted, in which at least a corresponding portion of each of the second time period and the first time period overlap each other, the second historical dataset comprises historical data on handling communications involving the second channel of communication, and the second forecast identifies a second number of agent resources needed to handle the second campaign; generate the applicable roster template comprising one or more shifts identifying agent resources to schedule based on the first number of agent resources identified in the first forecast needed to handle the first campaign; <evaluate the applicable roster template to identify a first deficiency in which the agent resources to schedule identified in the applicable roster template do not meet the second number of agent resources needed to handle the second campaign; determine whether the first deficiency causes one or more parameters not to be met, the one or more parameters defining relationships between agent resources to schedule identified in a roster template and a number of agent resources needed to handle a campaign identified in a forecast; and based on the first deficiency causing at least one of the one or more parameters not to be met, revise the one or more shifts identifying the agent resources to schedule for the applicable roster template to address the first deficiency so that a second deficiency in which the agent resources to schedule based on the revised one or more shifts do not meet at least one of the first number of agent resources needed to handle the first campaign and the second number of agent resources needed to handle the second campaign is not created that causes at least one of the one or more parameters not to be met.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more parameters comprises at least one of (1) having a deficiency greater than a threshold with respect to the agent resources to schedule identified in the roster template for a particular shift and a corresponding portion of the number of agent resources needed to hand the campaign identified in the forecast and (2) having a deficiency exist over a time interval identified in the forecast with respect to the agent resources to schedule identified in the roster template and a corresponding portion of the number of agents resources needed to hand the campaign identified in the forecast for the time interval.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein workforce management component is further configured to generate the applicable roster template with respect to the first number of agent resources needed to handle the first number of communications based on the first campaign having priority over the second campaign.
 16. The system of claim 13, wherein workforce management component is further configured to generate a schedule based on the applicable roster template, the schedule identifying actual agent resources scheduled to work during the first and second time periods for the first and second campaigns.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the actual agent resources are scheduled based on being able to handle communications involving both the first channel of communication and the second channel of communication.
 18. The system of claim 16 further comprising a campaign monitoring system configured to: receive a message from a contact device about a communication received or made by the contact center for the first or second campaign; select a particular agent from the agent resources currently logged in to handle communications for the first and second campaigns; determine whether the particular agent can handle the communication based on capabilities of the particular agent with respect to handling communications involving the first channel of communication and the second channel of communication; and send a message to the contact device advising the contact device to transfer the communication to the particular agent based on determining the particular agent can handle the communication. 